Official: PAS WON the election in Kuala Terengganu

9.35pm
PAS vice president Ahmad Awang: "The win shows that Pakatan Rakyat is aviable coalition...This win is not just for PAS but for Pakatan Rakyat". The Election Commission's returning officer announced that PAS has won Kuala Terengganu.

It's official. PAS has won the Kuala Terengganu by-election with a 2,631-vote. Its candidate obtained 32,883 votes while BN garnered 30,252 and Independent candidate obtained 193.

Kuala Terrenganu Election III

8.35pm: Unofficial - PAS now leads by 2,132 votes with 52,466 votes counted so far - PAS (26,971), BN (24,839), Independent (152). Another 20 percent of votes, or about 10,000 votes, yet to be counted.

PAS is certain to win the crucial Kuala Terengganu by-election with this unassailable lead.

Kuala Terrenganu Election II

Unofficial PAS has won the Bandar state seat by 190-vote majority. This is the only state seat the party lost in the March general election. About 80 percent of the Chinese voters in the Kuala Terengganu constitutency are from Bandar.

8.00pm Latest unofficial count: PAS increased lead to 2,026 votes. PAS (23,640 votes), BN (21,614), Independent (136). About 30 percent of votes yet to be tallied.

Kuala Terrenganu Election

EC's unofficial voter turnout is 79.73 percent (63,967 voters).

PAS is now leading by 158 votes - PAS (14,802 votes), BN (14,644). According to inside sources, PAS is leading in all areas except the Ladang state constituency.

There are hundreds of PAS supporters outside the state stadium where the main tally centre is located. Few Umno supporters spotted.

Khir bought a Mercedes, says political secretary

SHAH ALAM: Datuk Seri Dr Khir Toyo had approved the purchase of a Mercedes S350L worth almost RM1 million for his personal use with funds from Kumpulan Darul Ehsan Berhad when he was Selangor menteri besar.

This resulted in the state having to bear the extravagant purchase, said Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, the political secretary to Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim.

He was responding to Dr Khir's statement who said that the RM2 million purchase of 15 Toyota Camry cars showed that the Pakatan Rakyat leaders were more concerned about their needs than the welfare of Selangor people.

The opposition leader also questioned why the purchase was not made through an open tender and the state government should focus on fulfilling their election manifesto.

In a statement yesterday, Nik Nazmi said the open tender was not used because the cars were bought at market price for RM130,000 each.


The state government received its fleet of Camry cars on Friday.

As for the state's Proton Perdana V6 cars, those below two years old would be retained and used as pool cars.

Penang engages 10 lawyers to defend suit over road signs

The Penang government and Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) have engaged 10 lawyers to defend the suit brought by Pahang accountant Nik Rizman Sapian over multilingual road signs.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the counsel would be spearheaded by Karpal Singh. The rest are Yeoh Yang Poh, Azahar Harun, Malek Imtiaz, Harris Ibrahim, Mureli Navaratnam, Cecil Rajendra, Barnard Kok Yin Fook, Jagdeep Singh Deo and Gobind Singh.

“The team of lawyers was formed to defend the right of the state government on why it was wrong to put up the multilingual signboards in heritage sites in Georgetown,” he told reporters after a gathering made up of state executive councillors and civil servants at The Dome in Komtar here today.

“The team of lawyers will handle the case for the state government and MPPP for free and the case will be mentioned tomorrow at Georgetown High Court,” he said.

On Nov 4 last year, Nik Rizman filed an injunction at the High Court here to stop the state government and MPPP from putting up multilingual road signs. He claimed the move to put up multilingual road signs would jeopardise the position of Bahasa Malaysia as the country’s national language.

Petrol prices likely to stay

Petrol price may come down again only if the two-week average crude oil price beginning January is USD39.59 per barrel.

However, this may seem unlikely considering the average crude oil price per barrel currently stands at USD43.27.

The government will have until tomorrow to take price of crude oil into consideration before reviewing the petrol price.

Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs minister Datuk Shahrir Samad said: "It is only if the average comes down to that level, to see petrol prices going down by, maybe, 10 or 5 sen."

"At the moment, the crude oil price is USD39.18 per barrel, and I don't think it will come down drastically (today) to affect the average," he said when announcing the 2009 Chinese New Year Price Control Scheme.
The last reduction of fuel price was mid last month when the price at the pump came down by 10 sen to RM1.80 (RON97). The price of crude oil per barrel was at USD47 then.

Although the price of crude oil took another tumble late December to USD36 per barrel, it bounced back up early this month to USD49 due to the Gaza offensive.

On the fuel rebates, Shahrir said there may not be a new system once the current one expires in March.

"The rationale behind giving the fuel rebates is to assist the public when price of petrol were suddenly increased to RM2.70 last year.

"But that price structure was only between June and August before steadily declining, so public only had three months of hardship," he said asking if the extra money had gone to their pockets or for a new handbag.

He said now that petrol prices are lower, there is no need for a fuel rebate system.

"But it doesn't mean you can continue to speed and drive recklessly. Be economical and curb wastage, although prices are low for now," he said.

He did not discount a possibility of a different rebate system if petrol prices were to shoot up again.

Gaza Under Siege: Malaysia's efforts not in vain

Malaysia’s efforts to get the United Nations to hold a special session to discuss Israel’s brutalities in Gaza have not been in vain as the world body has agreed to hold the session in New York tomorrow, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said.

“I am satisfied that the efforts by Malaysia so far have not been in vain.

God willing, the main objective of getting the UN to hold the meeting will be achieved,” he said in his office here.

Abdullah said that he received a letter today, dated Jan 12, from UN General Assembly president Miguel Brockman, informing him about the special session.

In the letter, Brockman acknowledged having received two letters from Abdullah, dated Jan 7 and 10, and that he had decided to call the meeting tomorrow.
The UN General Assembly president had earlier issued a notice to all UN members that he would be calling the session on Jan 8.

However, Brockman deferred the session to a later date following the UN Security Council meeting, in which a resolution calling for cease-fire in Gaza was passed.

Abdullah said that in the letter, Brockman had expressed gratitude to Malaysia’s firm stance on the matter.

The UN’s ultimate objectives in Gaza, said Abdullah, would be a cease-fire which must be adhered to by all, a complete pullout of Israeli forces, and the dismantling of blockades imposed by Israel on Gaza.

Should Israel refused to implement the objectives, Abdullah said, the UN Security Council must pass a resolution to pave the way for the deployment of UN peacekeeping forces to enforce the cease-fire.

In a special session on Monday, Malaysian parliament passed a 10-point resolution which, among other things, called on the UN to hold a special session with a theme of “Uniting For Peace”. The parliament session followed the failure of the UN Security Council resolution to force Israel to pull out of Gaza.

More than 900 Palestinians have been killed since Israel invaded the area on Dec 27.

Kuala Lumpur : Gombak water treatment plant shut down due to palm oil spillage

The Gombak water treatment plant (WTP) has been shut down temporarily due to palm oil spillage from an overturned tanker at Km28 of the Kuala Lumpur-Karak Highway.

The plant, managed by Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd, was shut down soon after the tanker-van accident at 3pm yesterday and cleaning up the oil spill which has contaminated Sungai Gombak, is ongoing.

Puncak Niaga Gombak WTP operations assistant general manager, Azhani Sukimi, said the clean water supplier would inspect the raw water quality of the river on an hourly basis throughout the night.

The company has also started cleaning up palm oil residue from parts of Sungai Gombak.

“We are using sawdust, activated carbon and oil booms to treat the polluted water and we will only reopen the treatment plant once our part of the river is cleared of palm oil,” he told reporters at the Sungai Gombak intake facility at Batu 14 Gombak, here, today.
Water concessionaires tap raw water from Sungai Gombak and each of them is given a parcel to tap water from.

Meanwhile, the affected areas such as the International Islamic University in Gombak, Jalan Gombak-Benting (Lama), JHEOA Hospital at Batu 12, Kampung Simpang Tiga Gombak, Kampung Sungai Cincin, Bukit Lela, Taman Berlian, Kampung Changkat, Kampung Kerdas, Kampung Sungai Mulia and Taman Kamariah will receive water supply from Sungai Batu and Sungai Rumput until Sungai Gombak is given the all-clear.

The accident involving the oil palm tanker and a laundry van at Km28 of the KL-Karak Highway yesterday, which killed three people, resulted in the estimated 26,880kg of crude palm oil spill into Sungai Gombak and spreading about three kilometres downstream from the location.

Proton vs Toyota!

It is now a known fact that many state governments are “upgrading” their official car from local brand to foreign ones. There were many reasons given, each raising doubts from the public. It is hard to blame those who are objecting to this idea as the “upgrade” is paid with taxpayers’ money.

In my opinion, this move is an insult to locally manufactured cars and a showcase of being unconfident of local products. Many reasons given by the state governments show they believe that Proton cars are of lower quality and require a higher maintenance fee. The example would be how the Perak executive councilors said that the reason why they bought the 2.4 litre Toyota camry instead of the 2.0 litre model is because the latter is underpowered. This statement totally disregards Proton cars of their capability, a showcase of them not believing in local products’ quality. Also, the word “upgrading” signifies the local brand-Proton is of lower level when compared to foreign brands.

It is not hard to explain why campaigns encouraging Malaysians to buy local goods are not working as the state governments themselves are not practicing it. In fact, they are unconfident of our local cars and recognize the quality of foreign brands, providing Toyota and Mercedes free publicity.

Imagine what the Japanese diplomats would think of our cars when they see Malaysian state government officers are driving cars manufactured by them. It is hard to blame any Japanese bragging about their cars as they have the perfect line: “Even Malaysian governments choose our brands over any of their own.”

DAP flags taken down in KT by elections

We got reports that the DAP flags put up in conjunction with the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary were taken down by the authorities reasoning that DAP is not the participant in this election.

This is clearly a double standard. In this by elections, it is BN and PAS who are contesting and not Umno. So why are Umno flags being put up everywhere together with BN flags?

This is not fair, if the authorities wanted to be reasonable be reasonable to all parties regardless of BN or Pakatan Rakyat.

Cut our salary to donate for Palestine?

this is the most ridiculous idea by one of the member of parliament that grab my attention to the news, not sure what he was talking about in the beginning but this was what I heard just now. This is due to my selective hearing maybe, but it was unacceptable. Really how can our MP say this? Why we are willing to help other country but fail to notice that there are many hardcore poor people his own country.furthermore we already donate some millions to them.