Singapore Population

Singapore populations tops 5m; 36% foreigners

AFP , SINGAPORE
Wednesday, Sep 01, 2010, Page 5
Singapore’s population crossed 5 million this year and more than a third of the total are foreigners, the statistics department said yesterday. The city-state’s total population stood at 5.08 million people at the end of June, it said in a statement.

Of the number, 3.23 million are citizens, 540,000 are foreigners with permanent residency and 1.3 million are foreign professionals and workers along with their dependents, resulting in a 36 percent share for foreigners in the general population.

The population growth rate was 1.8 percent this year, reflecting a slowdown in the number of permanent residents and foreign workers being admitted into the country, the department said.

The number of permanent residents rose by 1.5 percent, down from at least 6 percent growth per year between 2005 and last year, it said.

Growth in the number of ­non-residents, or those on professional employment passes and shorter-term work permits, slowed to 4.1 percent, off from peaks of 15 percent in 2007 and 19 percent in 2008, it said.

Because Singaporeans have not been producing enough babies, the government had for years rolled out the welcome mat for ­foreigners, whose numbers rose drastically during the economic boom from 2004 to 2007.

However, after the 2008 global financial crisis, the government has taken a fresh look at its open-door policy following complaints from citizens that foreigners are competing for jobs, housing and medical care.

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Panglima Beraya di medan

Panglima beraya di perbatasan

KOTA BHARU 30 Ogos - Lazimnya anggota tentera yang bertugas di perbatasan ketika Hari Raya Aidilfitri hanya menyambutnya bersama rakan sepasukan.
Bagaimanapun pada tahun ini sambutannya berbeza apabila mereka bakal disertai oleh Panglima Tentera Darat, Jeneral Datuk Zulkifeli Mohd. Zin dan panglima tentera darat yang lain.
Zulkifeli berkata, ia bukan satu amalan baru tetapi menjadi pendekatan kepimpinannya untuk melibatkan kesemua panglima di bawah sayap tentera darat bersama-sama mendampingi anggota yang sedang bertugas.
"Pada 1 Syawal saya akan menyambut lebaran bersama anggota yang sedang bertugas di Perak, saya akan bersama-sama mereka membakar lemang, selepas itu bersama dengan anggota yang menjalankan operasi di kawasan sempadan.
"Begitu juga dengan panglima-panglima saya yang lain, sebagai contoh Panglima Medan akan menyambut lebaran bersama dengan anggota yang menjalankan operasi di Johor," katanya.
Beliau bercakap kepada pemberita selepas Majlis Penganugerahan Pingat Jasa Malaysia (PJM) dan penyampaian zakat kepada ahli Persatuan Bekas Tentera Malaysia (PBTM) di Kem 8 Briged di sini malam tadi.
Turut hadir, Presiden PBTM, Datuk Muhammad Abdul Ghani. Pada majlis tersebut Zulkifeli turut menyampaikan PJM kepada 90 bekas anggota tentera yang berkhidmat pada zaman darurat.
PJM adalah bagi menghargai jasa mereka yang berkorban untuk memastikan keamanan negara terutama ketika menentang pemberontakan komunis.
Zulkifeli berkata, anggota yang bertugas ketika Hari Raya Aidilfitri melakukan pengorbanan yang besar meninggalkan keluarga untuk berada di perbatasan negara.
"Mereka berada di sempadan negara untuk menjaga keamanan meninggalkan anak dan isteri, jadi saya bersama panglima yang lain akan mendekati mereka supaya hari raya disambut dengan penuh bermakna biarpun tanpa kehadiran orang tersayang," katanya.
Sementara itu, beliau berkata, pihaknya akan mengetatkan kawalan di sempadan negara ketika musim perayaan ini bagi mengelak dibolosi oleh pihak tertentu.
"Jangan ingat ketika hari raya aman, jadi kita telah mengambil langkah yang sewajarnya dan mengingatkan anggota kita supaya tidak leka," katanya.
Beliau bagaimanapun menjelaskan anggota tentera di sempadan tidak akan ditambah kerana jumlah sedia ada sudah memadai.
Pada masa sama, beliau meminta semua bekas tentera supaya menyertai PBTM bagi memastikan kebajikan mereka terpelihara.
Katanya, ahli PBTM juga perlu bersatu supaya persatuan itu kuat dan suara mereka didengar oleh kerajaan.
BHarian

Ganyang Malaysia 11

Ganyang Malaysia' merebak
Oleh Mohd Anwar Patho Rohnman di Jakarta
wananwar@bharian.com.my
2010/09/01

KUMPULAN dikenali Lumbung Informasi Rakyat mengadakan demonstrasi di luar Kedutaan Malaysia di Jakarta, semalam.

l Rumah jurutera Malaysia bertugas di Kalimantan dilempar batu

Dua kumpulan lancar kempen boikot produk Malaysia

JAKARTA: Gerakan 'Ganyang Malaysia' merebak ke Kalimantan Barat apabila rumah seorang jurutera Malaysia di sebuah ladang sawit di daerah Ketapang dilempar batu besar, Ahad lalu, manakala dua kumpulan baru menyertai tunjuk perasaan di hadapan Kedutaan Malaysia di sini, semalam. Kumpulan yang digelar Lumbung Informasi Rakyat (LIRA) dan Gerakan Rakyat Anti Malaysia (GERAM) turut memulakan kempen memboikot produk Malaysia dengan memasukkan anak tikus ke dalam plastik mengandungi anak patung siri kartun popular, Upin dan Ipin.

Kira-kira 50 penunjuk perasaan berbaju merah putih sebelum itu berkumpul di depan bangunan pejabat Menara Rajawali yang menempatkan pejabat Petronas dan melaung-laungkan perkataan ‘Ganyang Malaysia’ sambil menaikkan sepanduk anti-Malaysia.

Kumpulan itu kemudian berjalan dan menunggang motosikal ke pejabat Kedutaan Malaysia pada jam 2.30 petang dan mengadakan tunjuk perasaan secara aman. Bagaimanapun, tiada kekacauan atau kejadian membaling najis seperti yang berlaku dalam tunjuk perasaan Kumpulan Benteng Demokrasi Rakyat Malaysia (BENDERA), baru-baru ini.

Kira-kira 170 pegawai dan anggota Polis Indonesia turut membuat kawalan ketat di luar pintu masuk Pejabat Kedutaan Malaysia sejak jam 10 pagi.
Ketua penunjuk perasaan, Jojo Priosi yang menggunakan pembesar suara mengutuk Kerajaan Malaysia yang didakwa menghina kedaulatan dan rakyat Indonesia, gagal menangani dengan baik isu Tenaga Kerja Indonesia dan melakukan muslihat dalam isu sempadan.

Beliau juga mendakwa tindakan pejabat Kedutaan Malaysia menggaji rakyat Indonesia bekerja dan memanggil Polis Indonesia berkawal di luar pagar kedutaan sebagai menghina rakyat Indonesia.

Jurucakap GERAM yang mahu dikenali sebagai Sheila pula berkata, kumpulan itu mendesak Kerajaan Indonesia menjadikan Malaysia wilayah ke-34 republik itu jika Kuala Lumpur terus menunjukkan sikap tidak menghormati Indonesia.

Malah, katanya, GERAM akan melancarkan kempen memboikot produk Malaysia dan berhenti melawat Malaysia.

Sementara itu, Duta Malaysia di Indonesia, Datuk Syed Munshe Afdzaruddin Syed Hassan, berkata rakyat Malaysia tidak perlu bimbang dengan keselamatan keluarga mereka di negara ini.

Katanya, Kerajaan Indonesia menerusi Kementerian Luarnya dan Polis Indonesia memberi jaminan untuk menjaga keselamatan rakyat Malaysia sama ada yang bekerja, melancong atau belajar di negara ini.

“Kita dimaklumkan oleh pemerintah Indonesia yang mereka tidak berkompromi dalam soal keselamatan rakyat dan harta benda Malaysia di sini.

“Kita harap

Bhopal Litigation is Unending

Supreme Court reopens Bhopal gas tragedy case

Rubina Khan Shapoo, A Vaidyanathan, Updated: August 31, 2010 20:13 IST

New Delhi:  Seven Indians, who were executives of Union Carbide, and were sentenced to two years in jail for their role in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy of 1984 could soon be looking at tougher charges. The Supreme Court has re-opened the Bhopal case.

It's part of the government's new campaign to correct the infinite wrongs of the past which collectively led to a shocking verdict earlier this year. 15,000 people have died since 1984, when a gas leak at the Carbide plant poisoned the Bhopal air on a December night. A Bhopal court sentenced seven former Carbide executives, including then chairman Keshub Mahindra, to two years in jail. They were granted bail immediately.

That nano-punishment provoked political criticism and public anger. So the CBI asked the Supreme Court, through a curative petition, to review its own decision. In 1996, the Supreme Court had diluted the charges against the Carbide executives from culpable homicide to criminal negligence. Asking it to reconsider that ruling, the CBI said, "The men behind one of the world's biggest industrial catastrophes should not walk away with a minimal punishment of two years despite ample evidence to show the commission of an offence of homicide."

The former Carbide employees now have to explain why their sentence should not be scaled up  ''Definitely it is the first step and it sends out the right message that no matter how high you are the law is above you," said the CBI's lawyer, Devadatt Kamat.

The government hopes to also hold Dow Chemicals, which bought Carbide in 1999, financially liable for the disaster. So far, Dow has resolutely held that it cannot be linked to the tragedy through its ownership of Carbide. It says that Carbide sold its Indian interests to a company named Eveready.

What the Opposition and several activists also want is a more concerted attempt to have Warren Anderson, who was CEO of Carbide in 1984, extradited to India. Anderson visited Bhopal hours after the gas tragedy but was then allowed to leave the city on the Chief Minister's plane. His government-assisted getaway has become a crucial point of controversy, with the Congress repeatedly insisting that then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi did not sanction - or intervene to arrange - Anderson's exit.

In Parliament earlier this month, Arjun Singh, who was Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh in 1984, said Anderson had to be removed from Bhopal because there was a very real possibility of him being attacked by angry crowds.

Story first published:

August 31, 2010 15:00 IST

India Times

Restless Heartland

UDON THANI, THAILAND — In front of the charred ruins of the municipal hall here, a huge poster carries the photographs of 76 people being sought in an attack on the building three months ago, on the day the anti-government “red shirt” protests were crushed in Bangkok. Only 11 have been caught.
Scores of people are in hiding, many of them sheltered by a mostly sympathetic population. Scores more, arrested at the scene, are being held without bail.
Here in the heart of red shirt country, the government appears to have made little headway in calming or winning over its opponents, and the arrests and detentions illustrate the continuing divisions in the country.
In Bangkok, nearly 500 kilometers, or 300 miles, to the southeast, a sense of normalcy has covered over the wounds of the red shirts’ long occupation of the city center, which ended on May 19 with a military assault in which about 90 people died.
But the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva says red shirt leaders are continuing to plot violence, and it has kept seven provinces, including Udon Thani, under a state of emergency to prevent any resurgence of unrest.
As part of a nationwide campaign of censorship of opposition Web sites and radio stations, the government has shut down 46 local stations here in Udon Thani Province. Public gatherings of more than five people are forbidden.
In this province, home to many who protested in Bangkok in April and May, critics of the government have retreated into silence.
“People here are afraid of everything,” said Pramool Chatasuk, 66, who owns a dry cleaning business here in the provincial capital. “They are afraid that the government will think they are doing something wrong. They are afraid to speak.”
Sitting on a secluded bench in front of the burned-out municipal hall, an opposition radio broadcaster who now must hold his tongue said: “If I open my mouth too much, it will bring attention to me. I think I should cooperate with what they ask me to do.”
Nineteen red shirt leaders were indicted on terrorism charges two weeks ago in Bangkok. Here in northeastern Thailand, at least 164 lower-level sympathizers are in prison, according to the People’s Information Center, a network of academics sympathetic to the red shirts.
While working to prevent further violence, Mr. Abhisit is trying to bring the country together with a policy of “national reconciliation” that includes commissions to investigate the recent violence and to find ways to repair a broken society.
In a prison interview here, Natthayot Phajuang, a red shirt leader who is serving a six-month sentence, said the continuing detentions were making it difficult to find common ground.
“If he wants people in the country to love each other in harmony again,” he said of Mr. Abhisit, “he shouldn’t use prison to separate us.”
But many people here say they are not ready to reconcile. They say they are still hoping for the return of the former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006. He is believed to have been active in directing and financing the red shirts as he moves from country to country evading a Thai prison sentence for corruption. Mr. Thaksin had won the loyalty of rural voters with populist policies that have improved their lives with low-cost medical care and easy credit.
Mr. Abhisit has continued and even enhanced some of these programs, but he appears to have won few converts here.
“Even though we know that the government has good policies, we won’t accept it,” said Urai Poulchan, 62, a small-business man. “We want Thaksin back.”
The Thai economy has suffered along with that of the rest of the world, and people here remember better economic times under Mr. Thaksin. They also repeat what they call the wisdom he brought them when he empowered them as an electoral base.
“The rich have lived comfortably for many years,” said Mr. Pramool, the dry cleaner. “Now the poor people are learning the truth, and that makes the rich unhappy. When people become clever, that means it will be more difficult to govern them.”
New York Times

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Perkasa's Conterattack

Perkasa declares Malay rights not for debate

By Neville Sypkerman and Shazwan Mustafa Kamal

August 31, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 31 — Perkasa today sidestepped Nurul Izzah Anwar’s challenge to a public debate on Malay rights, saying the community’s special position and privileges should not be questioned. The Lembah Pantai MP wrote in The Malaysian Insider today that Perkasa’s idea of “Malay rights” was a mere ideological and philosophical construct  which was not rooted in the Constitution, and invited them to a debate.

In response, Perkasa claimed today that the special positions of the Malays could not be questioned or even debated on, therefore refusing any invitation for an open dialogue.
“She is a young kid that does not know or appreciate the history and meaning of the fight towards independence...so inexperienced and yet she is already auctioning the pride of her own race.
“My fight is with her father, not her. She is small fry,” Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali told The Malaysian Insider via text message.
Ibrahim dismissed Nurul’s arguments, and instead told her to focus on her father’s (Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim) Sodomy II trial.
“This is too small an issue, ask her to focus on her father’s sodomy case, or debate with the Wiranita chief. Is her father’s trial really a conspiracy?” said Ibrahim.
Perkasa Wiranita (Women’s Wing) chief Raihan Sulaiman Palestine echoed Ibrahim’s sentiments, stressing that Article 153 of the Federal Constitution was clear in according Malays special rights.
“Lately there have been a lot of questions, a lot of arguments against Article 153. How can this be? You cannot have a debate on something that is expressively stated within the Constitution.
“Even in Parliament, you have to get more than two-thirds agreement to change or even talk about the constitution, and she (Nurul) wants to have a public debate on it? What the Malays deserve, what they are entitled to is there in black and white,” said Raihan.
Raihan told The Malaysian Insider that Perkasa would go out of its way to ensure that no one questioned any provisions within the Federal Constitution that guaranteed Malays their “rights and privileges.”
“We will do everything and anything we can within the Federal Constitution to protect Malay rights...And if Nurul Izzah cannot understand this, swallow it. This is the reality,” said Raihan.
Nurul said that it was important to note that the Reid Commission, which drafted the constitution, had seen Article 153 as temporary measure, subject to review after 15 years by Parliament, before it was institutionalised into the NEP following the 1969 race riots.
Arguing that Malaysia was at a “monumental cross-road”, Nurul hammered home the point that it ultimately came down to the people to decide if Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) or Ketuanan Rakyat (people’s supremacy) was going to define Malaysia.
“Once the next general election outcome is determined, and if ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ is victorious, then some may choose to vote with their feet (emigrate with massive brain drain and a diminishing tax base), and some will choose to vote with their wallet (domestic capital flight compounded with decreasing FDI that further stunts our economic growth), which in turn will indicate the makings of a potential failed state with irreversible consequences,” she warned.
“What is left will be a shell of a former Malaysia that could have been a great example of a democratic and pluralistic nation to the world.”
Malay rights groups like Perkasa as well as the Malay Consultative Council (MPM) have been increasingly vocal in their racial rhetoric in arguing for maintaining the pro-Bumiputera New Economic Policy (NEP).
Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has also thrown his weight behind Perkasa, allaying fears of a revolution if the economic disparities between the Bumiputeras and the non-Bumiputeras were not dealt with.
Dr Mahathir has maintained that the NEP needed to be retained indefinitely in order for Bumiputeras to be successful.
MI

UMNO Baru Character

Traitors: A trademark and tradition of Umno! — Martin Jalleh

August 31, 2010

AUG 31 — The Umno-dominated government stubbornly sticks to the same old tricks to try to sink the Opposition. One such stale attempt is to label as “traitors” those who refuse to suck up to its spent elite leaders. And so Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid (AZ) who apparently ran out of steam to shut the Opposition up on the Scorpene submarines scandal, resorted to calling Nurul Izzah a “traitor”.
It seems that the Member of Parliament (MP) has stained the nation's image by revealing on 4 Aug. 2010 in an interview with Kompas, a newspaper in Indonesia, that the country’s first submarine cannot dive.
Below are his comments (in bold) followed by a response which when added up points to the ironic conclusion that it is the Defence Minister and Umno who could be the real traitors after all!
AZ: “The statement has damaged the country’s image in the eyes of the world.”
Strange, since when did the supremacists in Umno really bother about world opinion?
AZ: “She has undermined the country’s reputation.”
Bolehland already has such a bad reputation for her buckling economy, brain drain numbers, a “bunch of idiots” in the judiciary (N H Chan), bowed media and biased and brutal Police Force.
Added to that is the burgeoning bigotry, “bloody racists”, brute-majority parliament, buffoons in the MACC and a badly “screwed-up” AG Chambers! What is left of our “reputation” that Nurul can do more harm to?
AZ: “It is an act as that of a "penderhaka" (traitor).”
What about Umno’s self-serving sycophants who deceive, deny and deprive the poor Malays of what has been due to them, like the RM52 billion worth of shares allocated to the Malay community since 1971?
The Umnoputras betray their own race by bleeding this country dry and siphoning and stashing their ill-gotten gains overseas whilst making the non-Malays the scapegoat for the “failure” of the NEP!
AZ: “As a member of parliament, she should have been more ethical.”
Does AZ mean “ethical” as in a trumped up sodomy case without penetration, a life blown up by a C4 explosion, a tragic death by “self-strangulation” and a colossal RM12.5 billion case of daylight corruption?
AZ: “The manner in which she disparages the Malaysian armed forces is disgraceful.”
The Ministry of Defence (Mindef) does not need to be so defensive, for Nurul does not need to disparage the Armed Forces. With the help of greedy Umno cronies they often end up disgracing themselves.
Take for example, in 1985 Mindef bought 88 A4 Skyhawks from the US (which she used during the Vietnam War) and then left 35 of them parked in the Arizona desert. No one knows where they are now!
A defence attaché in the 80’s commented on the purchase of certain tanks and armoured personnel carriers: “I hope to God Malaysia never gets into a war. They couldn’t get out of their own footprints.”
It was an utter disgrace when PSC-Naval Dockyard, owned by Umno crony Amin Shah Omar, failed to fulfill its 1998 contract to build naval vessels. Yet,the Finance Ministry overpaid it about RM1 billion!
In fact, Najib, as Defence Minister, left a “disgraceful” legacy of financial mismanagement, irregularities in procurement, wastage and even grave allegations of kickbacks, bribery and corruption.
In the 2002 acquisition of two Scorpene submarines for one billion euros (RM4.7 billion), the commission of 114 million euros was allegedly paid to Perimekar, a company of Razak Baginda (a close ally of Najib).
In 2003, Malaysia bought 18 Sukhoi fighter jets worth US$900 million. A commission of US$108 million was allegedly given to Umno stalwart Adib Adam the chairman of the local company handling the deal.
AZ must have found the disappearance of two F5-E jet engines worth RM50 million each from the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) base in Sungai Besi rather embarrassing and disgraceful.
Over the past 23 years, RM180 billion of the rakyat’s money has been spent on national defence! Yet our military capability is still in such a scandalous state today. Can anything be more disgraceful than this?
AZ: “She has put the security of the nation at risk.”
The real enemy is within. The country is at its greatest risk with Umno’s rogues, racists, religious fanatics and rabble rousing newspapers – all of whom are allowed to roam and run riot!
AZ: “Politicians should stop politicising national defence issues.”
Yes AZ, it is disgraceful for Umno to use national defence spending as a surefire money-spinner!
AZ: "Although we may have differences in opinion, we should stick to the truth…”
The truth is that Nurul was only reiterating what AZ had revealed in Parliament on March 17 that one of the submarines was not being able to dive because of technical problems. Surely AZ is not a traitor?
Nurul nipped the Minister’s nonsense (that her statement had threatened national security) in the bud by arguing that
•   the problems regarding the submarine were common knowledge
•   AZ had himself said that such technical problems were also faced by many other countries
•   information on the dive status of any submarine in the world was easily available.
She pointed out to the defensive minister: “If it is true that the minister is a patriot, why then is he not supporting the MACC’s probe on the commission paid to Perimekar Sdn Bhd…?”
She added that the navy’s revelation that it was only conducting its integrated navy exercise once, instead of three times a year in order to save cost (Bernama, 6 Aug.) was even a greater security threat!
Harebrained Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein Onn jumped on to AZ’s bandwagon and added that Nurul’s criticism of Malaysia abroad “proved that PKR’s struggles were not accepted in this country”.
The Umno vice-president added that “the opposition pact clearly failed to win the hearts of the people to the extent that it had to go abroad to explain their struggles pertaining to national issues”.
Why then did the PM have to go to the US to explain his policies to Obama and why pay RM50,000 in an attempt to get his opinion-editorial article published in one of the major newspapers in the US?
In inferring that Nurul was a traitor, he forgot that his grandfather was a “good traitor” who had formed two parties to fight against Umno and so was his father who refused to join Umno Baru until his death!
Minister in the PM's Department Jamil Khir Baharom said that Nurul had “sinned” by tarnishing the country’s image. The ambitious Umno man forgot he had majored in many sins as a young major!
Alas, Nurul Izzah is a young MP who, by her own merit, is daring enough to dive deep in search for the truth and in spite of the uncertain implications. She just happens to be the daughter of Anwar Ibrahim.
In contrast, we have Umno’s “old” men whose statements betray their shallowness and who, in trying to keep Umno afloat, are bent on using their sillyscare tactics, sabre-rattling tricks and sinister theatrics.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or newspaper. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.