Zoee Hillson (Borneo Post)

KUCHING: Minister of Tourism and Heritage Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan announced yesterday that ‘Miri International Jazz Festival’ (MIJF) is now renamed as ‘Borneo Jazz’.

UNVEILING OF “BORNEO JAZZ 2011” : Dr Chan (right) and Rashid unveiling ‘Borneo Jazz’. — Photo by Chimon Upon

Paul Sir. The Borneo Post

THE 1 sen coin is no longer in use. We have to round up our bills to the nearest 5 or 10 sen now. This means our 5 sen coin is still circulated widely but really, we don’t pay much attention to it. I suppose that if we accidentally dropped a 5 sen piece, we wouldn’t even bother to pick it up. It’s too small a fraction and 5 sen will buy you nothing today.

However, when you consider a 5 sen increase in a litre of petrol, it can add up to quite a tidy sum.

Oon Yeoh (Malaysiakini)

Last week I wrote about some really happening tech trends for the past year. This week it's all about looking forward and what you can expect in the new year.

Android phones gain acceptance

In the US, more Android phones are already sold than iPhones but over here very few people have Android phones. The reason is simple - the smart phone market is dominated by iPhone (left) and Blackberry. Nokia, despite faltering in the smart phone category, is still a very popular brand here. That leaves very little room for the Android phones. But that all might change next year as more brands like HTC, Motorola, SonyEricsson, Samsung and LG embrace Android.

Tablet wars erupt

The iPad has finally arrived on Malaysian shores and it's selling like hot cakes, as to be expected. The Samsung Galaxy Tab, much-heralded as iPad's main rival, has also just arrived. In the coming months, you can expect to see many more Tablet computers for various companies to enter the market. It will be an all-out Tablet war. My prediction is the iPad will prevail, just as the iPod has done in the digital music player segment.

App publishing takes off

The interesting thing about Tablet computers and smartphones is how they've facilitated the growth of a brand new industry: Apps. While people are accustomed to getting everything free on the Internet and thus are reluctant to pay for content when it's on the web, this is not the case with apps that are sold for phones and tablets.

With the explosion of Tablets anticipated to happen next year, publishers cannot afford to ignore this channel. I do believe there will be a surge of interest in app publishing locally. It's already happening abroad so there's no reason why it won't happen here.

Cloud computing ready for prime time

Cloud computing is not new but it was known by many other names before, like “application software provider” and “software as a service”. Basically it refers to software that is hosted in the “cloud” - in other words, distant servers - rather than your computer or on my company's servers. It's software that you access online through the Internet.

Some, like Google Docs, are completely free. Others like DropBox which allows you to share files between your computers and with other people, have a free version and a premium version offering more capacity. The notion of using software off the Internet has taken some time to gain mainstream acceptance but it's now finally ready for prime time and will be commonly accepted going forward.

Social media for business matures

Social media really boomed in Malaysia and the world this year. Next year, the growth will proceed unabated. Not only will more and more businesses get into social media, the way they make use of social media to achieve their objectives will appear in all kinds of innovative ways. This was the year businesses got familiar with social media. Next year will be when they make full use of it.

Terence Netto (Malaysiakini)

COMMENT In the circumstances, PKR and by extension Pakatan Rakyat must be grateful for small mercies.

There is a silver lining to the clouds that overhang the opposition coalition as a result of the US diplomatic cables exposed by WikiLeaks, a cache of which yields the 'conclusion' of assorted intelligence agencies that Anwar Ibrahim was involved in sodomy.

Aside from the sleuthing of the French lawyer Joseph Breham, the issue of the suspected role of Prime Minister Najib Razak in the cover-up of the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder has bobbed like cork in a sea of implication and exoneration.

Following the failure of efforts by lawyers advising private eye P Balasubramaniam to get him charged for perjury by the MACC over contradictory affidavits, it appears that only the pursuit of Breham of the actual story behind the purchase of Scorpene submarines by Malaysia, in which Altantuya was reputedly a go-between, would unearth details that could be ultimately incriminatory to Najib.

But Breham's chase, though promising, has to contend with the windings of a serpentine French bureaucracy which will take its time to arrive at a conclusion.

Time enough for Malaysian quarries to slough off tainted skins and make a Houdini-like escape?

In the era of the WikiLeaks exposure, such getaways are no longer easy to bring off.

LISA GOH (The Star)

KUALA LUMPUR: The leaked US diplomatic cable stating that Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy charge and trial “was a set-up job” and that he had “walked into it” is sub judice and a contempt of court, his lawyers said.

Anwar’s counsel Karpal Singh said that it was “no doubt, contempt of court”.

“Now we have to confirm with the Singapore government if what was reported is in fact true.

“But it is sub judice, as it is a pre-judgment of a trial which has yet to be concluded,” Karpal said yesterday.

Karpal said he would act once his client instructed him. Anwar is currently abroad.

SIBU: River awareness programme should be intensified to ensure the preservation of Mother Nature and continuous river management.

Second Finance Minister Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh stated this yesterday during the closing of Bungan River cleaning campaign and talks on public   awareness, safety and cleanliness of river at SK Kampung Bungan in Batang Igan.

Wong, who is also the Minister of Environment and Public Health, said that the government had been very concern towards river cleanliness and numerous allocations was placed to such programmes.

Josie M Fernandez (Malaysiakini)

[JOSIE M FERNANDEZ is currently an Asian Public Intellectual Fellow, director of Philanthropy Asia, consultant and researcher. Working on sustainability, philanthropy and anti-corruption actions are some of her current passions besides writing.]

The global attention on the leaked US diplomatic cables has now shifted from the messages to the messenger - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been detained without bail in Britain on sex crime complaints originating from Sweden.

The leaks, about 250,000 classified cables from more than 250 US embassies around the world, were obtained by WikiLeaks and are being released daily.

The cables reveal secret information about intelligence gathering by the US and strategies related to military and political actions. Some highlights of the first week:

• Saudi Arabia and other US Arab allies urge military action against Iran
• Actions to stop Iran's nuclear activities and ambitions
• Intelligence gathering on UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon
• Planned EU boycott of the inauguration of Iran president Ahmadinejab in 2009
• Unification of North and South Korea
• Criticism of Prince Charles - whether he is fit to be the King of England
• Hillary Clinton's request for information on the mental health of Argentina's president Christine Kirchman
• France, a difficult ally in the fight against terror
• Pakistan army chief pushing President Asif Ali Zardani into exile
• Canadian distrust of the US
• Alleged rampant corruption of Afghan government officials and the reported questioning of vice-president Massoud in Dubai when he flew in with US$52 million in cash
• US allies complain about 15 percent handling charges by the US on donations to build the Afghan army
• US concerns that China may be planning Internet warfare
• US and Russia decide to fight a drug war in Afghanistan
  
  

Mariam Mokhtar (malaysiakini)

[MARIAM MOKHTAR is a non-conformist traditionalist from Perak, a bucket chemist and an armchair eco-warrior. In 'real-speak', this translates into that she comes from Ipoh, values change but respects culture, is a petroleum chemist and also an environmental pollution-control scientist.]

The WikiLeaks revelations about the Singapore intelligence service's and Lee Kuan Yew's knowledge of the trap set for Anwar make grim reading. In addition, derogatory comments by Singapore's senior officials to the Americans about Malaysia's current and former prime ministers cannot be ignored.

How much does the Singapore establishment know about the Anwar case? How strong is the evidence? Is Singapore silent about Anwar's trap because of a secret deal they have made with person or persons unknown?

Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has always maintained that sound relations with Malaysia are vital. He is aware of the importance, despite the awkward issues that crop up occasionally: water, land reclamation Pulau Batu Puteh.

Singapore, he contends, must be able to stand on its own as an equal with other nations.

Perhaps Lee was mirroring the flaw in the Singapore psyche about being a very small and vulnerable island. Lee is haunted by Indonesian President BJ Habibie's remarks in an interview with The Asian Wall Street Journal in 1998. Habibie did not consider Singapore a friend, unlike his predecessor Suharto.

Habibie had said, “It's OK with me, but there are 211 million people (in Indonesia). All the green (area) is Indonesia. And that red dot is Singapore,” pointing to a map of the region.

Lee knows that Habibie's statement was a vivid and valuable reminder that Singapore is small and very vulnerable: “Given its sheer size and its proximity to Singapore, Indonesia's stability is of critical importance to the city state of four million people. If Indonesia is in chaos, we will be engulfed by their situation. If Indonesia is hostile, we will have a problem”.

When political and social unrest brought down Suharto, and resulted in a series of changes in Indonesia's political leadership, Singapore was worried. Lee knows that the Islamic element in South-East Asian politics cannot be ignored. If religious fanaticism gained ascendancy, it would also tear Singapore apart.

Lee once said, “If the world view of Indonesia or its leaders shift, it will have profound implications for Singapore and the region.”

Terence Netto (Malaysiakini)

[TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for close on four decades. He likes the occupation because it puts him in contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire them. It is the ideal profession for a temperament that finds power fascinating and its exercise abhorrent.]

COMMENT If diplomacy entails the art of conveying to a party one's candid assessment of a third, that exercise would be fraught in the age of the WikiLeaks exposure.

For if what the philosopher Pascal held - "I lay it down as a fact that if all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world" - is true, there would have to be rock-solid assurances of confidentiality before there can be candor in future diplomatic tete-a-tetes, especially between Asian envoys and their US counterparts.

No diplomat is going to feel free holding forth in private if he or she knows that the world would be listening in, eventually.

WikiLeaks has well-nigh ruined diplomatic conversation as a source of insight on what's moving and shaking in the world.

The dim view of some Malaysian leaders held by assorted Singapore diplomats, as disclosed in leaked diplomatic cables, is no more or no less than that spouted by Malaysian oppositionists of the same leaders.

For the Malaysian opposition to be riled up over this would be hypocritical. Worse, it would lend retrospective credence to the accusations of disloyalty leveled by government leaders at opposition figures who have criticised the country's leadership in foreign forums.

Bernama

Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud has called on chambers of commerce, business associations and guilds to come up with new ideas and work together closely with the country's economic planners in the quest to make Malaysia a high-income nation.

"All must engage with government institutions in order to be able to make the move forward," he said when officiating at the 20th anniversary celebration of the Federation of the Sarawak Chiang Chuan Associations in Sibu last night.

Abdul Taib said the government had many schemes to assist the people, in terms of finance and training, to cope with the many challenges the country might face along the way to becoming a high-income nation.

"Our challenges will be in switching over to high management, high finance, high-performing businesses and the era of giant companies," he said.

He said there were the many universities, institutes of management and various training programmes for them which the government would expand upon.

Kua Kia Soong (Malaysiakini)

COMMENT Defence spending accelerated across the board after Prime Minister Najib Razak, called “the driving force” behind Malaysia's military modernisation programme by Foreign Policy in Focus, became defence chief in 2000 - his second tenure in the ministry.

His shopping list included battle tanks from Poland, Russian and British surface-to-air missiles and mobile military bridges, and Pakistani anti-tank missiles, F/A 18 jet fighters, submarines from France and Russian Sukhoi Su-30 fighter aircrafts.

The BN government has been far from transparent in its arms purchases. Instead of calling for competitive bidding on defence contracts, the government has insisted that its military procurement be conducted through private negotiations because of security considerations.

Very often, contracts are given to companies which have links to political leaders. Approving officers, for obvious reasons, then approve projects forwarded by relatives or friends of political leaders.

Malaysiakini News

In response to the Wikileaks expose of a US State Department cable against Anwar Ibrahim, PKR communications director Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said the disclosure only goes to show that the conspiracy against the Opposition leader stems from the highest levels.

Nik Nazmi, who is also Seri Setia state assemblyperson, said what is “more shocking” is that the Singapore leadership has chosen to partake in this decision to conspire against Anwar by deliberately spreading disinformation” to the Australia's intelligence.

“We must ask why the Singaporean intelligence services chose to collude with Malaysia's Special Branch in spreading such lies about Anwar,” said the PKR supreme council member.

That Australia's own parliamentarians and other members of the international community have questioned the integrity of the prosecution against Anwar only heightens such suspicions, Nik Nazmi added.

“It should furthermore be pointed out that the cables exposed by Wikileaks are essentially information collected by third parties – like Australia – that were then shared to the US State Department.

“As a result, the cables contain all manner of information – including personal opinions and hearsay and hence are far from reliable,” Nik Nazmi said in a statement issued this afternoon.

Malaysiakini News

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim faces significant turbulence ahead after a leaked US State Department diplomatic cable emerged today alleging Singaporean and Australian intelligence officials' believed Anwar had indeed engaged in the act for which he stands accused.

According to the Australian Sydney Morning Herald's Sunday edition dated Dec 12, the sodomy charges that have been levelled against Anwar were the result of a “set-up” job by his “enemies”.

Anwar himself knew it was a trap, yet he “walked into it anyway,” said The Sun-Herald in an exclusive based on a November 2008 cable released to the newspaper by whistleblower website Wikileaks.

The cable is one of more than 250,000 diplomatic cables between the US State Department and its embassies around the world that have been 'dumped' by Wikileaks onto the Internet.

COMMENT Early this year, the BN government tried to raise RM1 billion through a new Goods and Services tax which would further burden the poor. By mid-2010, the government decided to postpone the implementation of the tax. It nevertheless succeeded in withdrawing subsidies on food, oil, and a few other daily essentials, saving the government a grand total of RM700 million.

While this controversy was fomenting quite a bit of heat in the Malaysian media, the Defence Ministry announced on April 19 that more than RM10.4 billion in defence contracts would be signed during that weekend's 'Defence Fair' to modernise the military and security sectors in line with the Ninth Malaysia Plan:

“The government has allocated RM21 billion, or 10.6 percent, of the development expenditure under the Ninth Malaysia Plan for this purpose,” said Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Zahid said the deals would be for acquiring armoured vehicles, multi-role support ships, combat aircraft and next-generation patrol vessels. As in all previous military purchases under the government, such huge spending by the Defence Ministry was passed through Parliament without too much debate.

The grisly murder of a Mongolian woman, Altantuya Shaaribuu has created greater awareness among Malaysians about the lack of transparency in arms procurement. Apart from the Scorpene submarine deal, there have recently been cases of unaccounted negligence - the theft of two F-5E jet engines from an RMAF base and the loss through sheer negligence of an entire ship, the KD Sri Inderapura due to an onboard fire.

Bernama

PUTRAJAYA: Former Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) secretary-general Chin Peng and its members have lost their bid to revive their civil suit against the Malaysian government.

Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Alauddin Mohd Sheriff, leading a three-man Federal Court quorum, denied them leave to appeal to the apex court against a Kuala Lumpur High Court’s decision to summarily strike out their breach of contract suit.

Alauddin said the court was of a unanimous decision that the question posed by the applicant (Chin Peng) for the Federal Court to determine did not meet the requirements under Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 for the court to grant leave.

Section 96 states that leave would be granted if the issue posed for determination of the Federal Court is of a novel point and that of a public interest.

S Pathmawathy (Malaysiakini)

Controversial singer Wee Meng Chee today held a short meeting with de facto Law Minister Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz over difficulties in obtaining government grants for his movie.

Wee, better known as Namewee, met Nazri today at Parliament to inform him about the new film, titled Nasi Lemak 2.0, and his futile eight-month effort to secure government grants.

He had previously claimed that the government's requirement for much of the script to be in Bahasa Malaysia to qualify for grants as discriminatory and not in line with the 1Malaysia spirit.

During the 10-minute meeting, Wee expressed his wish to personally inform Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak about the predicament faced by him and other film makers.

At a press conference later, Nazri said that he would raise the matter with the premier during Friday's cabinet meeting.

Malaysiakini - [KEE THUAN CHYE is the author of 'March 8: The Day Malaysia Woke Up', which just won 3rd prize in the Popular Readers' Choice Awards. It has also been translated into Chinese.]

COMMENT What Prime Minister Najib Razak said at the opening of the BN convention last Sunday reflects a mind of the lowest common denominator. It is not the kind of mind one expects of a prime minister.

He stooped really low in taking swipes at the two-family dominance of the DAP (Lim Kit Siang's and Karpal Singh's) and "nepotism" in PKR, forgetting that he too is the son of a former prime minister, and that Dr Mahathir Mohamad also has a son who is a deputy minister with ambitions of becoming bigger.

Instead of taking on the opposition on ideological grounds and maintaining prime ministerial decorum and dignity, he resorted to name-calling. He called Pakatan Rakyat "anti-national" and "very dangerous". He said their activities were "despicable". Some media organisations reported it as "evil".

Abdul Karim Hamzah, chief political secretary to Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, has told Radio Free Sarawak (RFS) that it is only “fair” that Taib should accumulate wealth in public office.

In an interview with RFS, a shortwave station outside the control of the government, Abdul Karim dismissed criticism of the enormous wealth of Taib's family, as reported by the Sarawak Report website. He also discussed the controversial Sarawak Government White Paper on 'unhealthy political practices', proposed by Abdul Karim himself.

“Personally, I see there must be limitations to everything, you cannot have a free flow of everything... the freedom of speech, there are limitations. I mean to take up an action (for libel) is not as simple (as it seems)… sometimes it's better to just leave things as they are, because it will, after a while, quieten down.”

He brushed off the furore surrounding detailed descriptions on Sarawak Report of Taib's property fortunes in Europe and North America, and land acquisition schemes in Sarawak.

“The way I see it, it's not causing any problem, lah. What is the problem with Sarawak Report? Have they been saying something that is very defamatory or bad? I don't think it's wrong to be rich."

Asked how Taib and his children could have achieved their fabulous wealth based on his modest ministerial salary, he replied: “How can you use that salary as a yardstick, you know? I mean, you must give people an opportunity…I mean, if Taib is the chief minister, I don't think we should stop the children, (that) the children cannot be rich or the family cannot be rich.

“He has been in power for the last 40 years… he has been open to a lot of opportunities, whereby his children also can participate in business, and then, using the kind of networking that they can have, and then build up their riches.”

Asked what these opportunities were, Abdul Karim explained: “Well, opportunities to participate in business and things like that, you know? Take for example… if you are a minister or chief minister, then somebody comes to you and wants to sell a piece of land at a very cheap price… and then through the years, that value of land suddenly shoots up 1,000 times… and you sell it off and make some money, is that tantamount to corruption?

“If you use your position to secure certain businesses or certain contracts, then I would say that would be an abuse of power, but then that depends again, whether that is happening or not…”

He avoided the topic of allegations of Taib distributing contracts to companies under the control of his family members, including CMS and Naim Holdings.

Malaysiakini

[DEAN JOHNS, after many years in Asia, currently lives with his Malaysian-born wife and daughter in Sydney, where he mentors creative writing groups. Already published in Kuala Lumpur is a third book of his columns for Malaysiakini, following earlier collections 'Mad about Malaysia' and 'Even Madder about Malaysia'.]

It's a bit of a mystery to me why the US is getting its knickers in such knots over the betrayal of so-called 'secrets' by WikiLeaks.

Let's face it, the contents of these cables hardly come as a surprise to anyone who regularly reads and watches respectable media coverage of the wackos, weirdos and criminals out there running so much of the world.

It's hardly a revelation, for example, that the US is as aware as the rest of us are that its puppet Karzai (right) regime in Afghanistan is as corrupt as it's clueless. Or that one of the 'secrets' of the Pakistani secret service is that it supports selected terrorist groups; or that Russia is virtually a mafia state; or that the Chinese Communist Party is totally paranoid about criticism and sick and tired of the childish tantrums of its psychotic sole ally, North Korea.

Similarly, it's far from surprising to learn that the Saudis see Iran's nuclear ambitions as a threat to their oil and Haj pilgrim businesses with whose proceeds they help fund Sunni terrorists, and thus would love the Americans to “cut off the head of the snake”.

It's also far from amazing to read that the ga-ga Gaddafi of Libya takes a buxom blonde nurse with him wherever he goes, and very stale news indeed that Italy's Prime Minister Berlusconi is a character straight out of burlesque. Nor is it in the least astonishing to learn that the Malaysian government is again suspected of aiding or at least failing to prevent the trans-shipment of illicit military technology to America's enemies.