| My journey - Wong Hon Wai 黃漢偉 Posted: 09 Oct 2011 07:52 AM PDT
| Malam Kesenian Kampung Melayu Posted: 09 Oct 2011 07:41 AM PDT | | Cycling with PM, CM and and Penangites Posted: 09 Oct 2011 07:18 AM PDT | | Assisting fire victims of Kampung Pisang Posted: 09 Oct 2011 07:10 AM PDT  YB Wong Hon Wai gave financial aid to families affected by the fire. It was delivered 12 hours after the fire occured.  YB Wong Hon Wai have a midnight 2am meeting with the fire victims to obtain their particulars and look for ways to help them with temporary shelter.  The fire has destroyed 6 houses in Kampung Pisang, Air itam | | Offer letters issue to the applicants of Low Medium Costs House at Central Garden, Batu Lanchang Posted: 09 Oct 2011 07:03 AM PDT  As reported in Sinchew Jit Pao 檳州政府分配Central Garden中廉價屋‧黃漢偉：通知87"幸運兒"‧發獻購信了 黃漢偉（右二）公佈檳州低價屋供需情況：右一為其助理莫策燕；左二是州房屋主任諾莎阿達，和官員弗士娜。（圖：星洲日報） （檳城）掌管州房屋事務的行政議員黃漢偉說，最近建好的峇都蘭樟Central Garden的195單位價格7萬2千500令吉中廉價屋，根據當局今年8月的統計，共有1千203名登記購買，而最新統計數字，要求購買它的人士稍跌至1千134人。 他說，州政府已向87名要求購買Central Garden中廉價屋單位的"幸運兒"發出獻購信。 他昨日（21日）在新聞發佈會說，這些收到獻購信的人士，有14人是上世紀80年代之前的登記者，另14名是1980至1989年的登記者，30名是1990至1999年的登記者，23名是2000至2005年的登記者，6名是2006至2011年的登記者。 低價廉屋供不應求 黃漢偉說，目前檳州共有逾萬名中下層人民向州政府登記要購買廉價屋，或中廉價屋，可是州政府所能夠提供的低價屋卻遠遠追不上殷切的需求。 他強調，在檳州民聯政府治理下獲得機會購買廉價屋和中廉價屋的中下層人士，其中竟有人是30年前的登記購買廉價屋者。 黃漢偉同意，有許多人等到從工作崗位退休了，仍然等不到廉價屋。 其中一些人薪金逐年提高，因而失去了購買低價屋的資格，收入處於尷尬的水平，被當局視為不能購買中廉價屋的"高薪"，卻根本買不起目前價格銳漲至30萬令吉以上水平的公寓。 指前朝剝削需屋者機會 黃漢偉說，有些中下層民眾的收入太低，沒有資格向銀行貸款，故即使向州政府登記獲得分配，也無法擁有自己的屋子。 不過，他認為，前朝時期有通過人民代議士的推薦分配低價屋風氣，由於許多得到分配者是朋黨，造成真正需要者的機會被剝削。 一些"擁有關係的人士"使用家人的名義多買幾間，然後出租牟利。檳州民聯政府為了杜絕前朝的弊端，嚴格執行獲得獻議購買低價屋者不可出租，及購屋5年內不准出售的政策。 方便掌握最新情況和數據 鼓勵登記購買廉價屋 黃漢偉鼓勵向州政府登記購買廉價屋，或中廉價屋者每隔3年更新一次登記，以便當局掌握最新的情況和數據。 他說，以人們對低價屋需求殷切的檳島來說，目前只有6個房屋發展計劃能夠提供現成的廉價屋給中下層民眾，即擁有90單位的壟尾的旭陽之苑、擁有414單位的甘蜜山Centrio Garden、擁有80單位的浮羅山背Desa Nipah、擁有280單位的雙溪賴Idaman Melur、擁有334單位的前姓郭橋填地Sri Saujana，和擁有195單位的峇都蘭樟Central Garden。 他說，上述6個發展計劃，有的已發出獻購信，或已發出部份獻購信，所剩無幾。 有人接獻議購低價屋信件 不法份子詐財 黃漢偉揭露，他於週二接獲發展商投報，指有人獲得州政府獻議購買低價屋信件，可是涉及的發展商尚未把有關低價屋交給州政府。他懷疑該名購屋者被不良份子詐財，可是已找不到該名人士。（星洲日報／大北馬） | | 3 Phases to resurface the Kampung Road in Air Itam consitutuency Posted: 09 Oct 2011 06:57 AM PDT YB Wong Hon Wai, ADUN Air Itam, melawat kawasan di Air Itam untuk meninjau projek pengetaran semula jalan-jalan kampung. Projek ini adalah projek khas tahun 2011 untuk mengetar jalan-jalan kampung di Air Itam dan fasa 2 telah siap. Fasa tiga dijangka bermula akhir tahun ini. Kos kesemua projek ini ditanggung oleh MPPP dan Peruntukan kawasan Air Itam dari Kerajaan Negeri dan kos keseluruhan ialah RM160,000.
As reported in China Press
亞依淡次階段工程 3道路完成鋪瀝青
（檳城9日訊）亞依淡區州議員黃漢偉指出，其選區內第二階段的鋪路工程已竣工，耗資1萬9790令吉的工程是由檳島市政局撥款，所鋪上瀝青的3條道路共長760公尺。
他指出，第二階段涉及鋪路地區，包括紅毛丹路（70公尺）、甘榜武吉壟尾路（270公尺）及安樂村（420公尺）。
他說，一般道路在5至7年后就需重鋪，甘榜道路由于交通流量較少，一般上可耐10年。
耗資7萬
黃漢偉昨早與安樂村鄉委會委員巡視安樂村時，如是指出，出席者包括市議員柏拉安南、安樂村鄉委會主席黃振部、秘書詹比利。
安樂村鄉委會秘書詹比利說，該村道路已超過10年沒有鋪上瀝青，進入該村的最大型交通工具，是小型的垃圾車。
此外，黃漢偉指出，其選區內的鋪路工程共分三階段進行，早已在今年年初就已鑒定即將鋪上瀝青的道路；首階段在兩個月前已完成，所鋪的道路為甘榜比桑基督教堂前、甘榜比桑天德堂前、政府診療所前，該階段工程耗資7萬令吉。
他指出，第三階段工程在上個月獲批准，預計年底動工，所鋪道路為甘榜比桑一帶，耗資8萬1000令吉。
"首階段與第三階段的工程，皆由亞依淡選區撥款，撥出有關款項，只有第二階段工程是由市政局撥款。"
此外，黃漢偉還代表安樂村鄉委會，移交50令吉援助金與價值20令吉的日常用品給安樂村窮苦居民。 | | Penang State Government supports the Freedom Film Fest Posted: 09 Oct 2011 06:49 AM PDT Freedom Film Fest to screen in Penang this weekend
Posted on 3 October 2011 - 08:45pm
Bernard Cheah
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
GEORGE TOWN (Oct 3, 2011): The FreedomFilmFest (FFF) 2011 films will be screened in both the mainland and island of Penang this weekend.
The human rights film festival, organised by Pusat KOMAS and supported by the Penang state government and Suaram, will be held at Summit Hotel, Bukit Mertajam, on Saturday from 8pm to 11pm.
It will then be presented at the Dewan Sri Pinang in George Town on Sunday from 11am to 11pm.
FreedomFilmFest assistant coordinator Yow Chong Lee said the screenings here will feature three short films titled 'Huruf J', 'Lot, Umah Am' and 'Senyap... Tersentak'.
"The first two films were winning films of the FFF 2011 film proposal competition, while the last is a production by Pusat KOMAS," he said.
While 'Huruf J' touches on issues faced by widows and 'Lot, Umah Am' talks about indigenous Orang Seletar fishermen living along the Straits of Johor, 'Senyap... Tersentak' highlights the eight demands made by the Bersih 2.0 movement.
"After each viewing, we will engage with the audience on the issues of those films," said Yow at a press conference recently.
Suaram Penang Coordinator Ong Jing Cheng and State Cultural Committee chairman Wong Hon Wai were present as well.
Wong said that the state government supports such film festivals which touch on human rights issues.
"This is a film festival which is not normally seen in other places here," he said.
Admission is free. For details, visit freedomfilmfest.komas.org or email freedomfilmfest@komas.org | |
| Lim Kit Siang Posted: 09 Oct 2011 12:02 AM PDT
| 2012 budget – cornucopia of goodies for votes Posted: 08 Oct 2011 04:09 PM PDT Prime Minister cum Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's 2012 Budget on Friday was a veritable cornucopia of goodies for votes in the 13th general elections – the most brazen and cynical budget exercise in the nation's history to reach out for voter support from a whole swathe of targetted groups comprising important vote-banks. But [...] | |
| MY VOICE FOR NATION Posted: 08 Oct 2011 01:26 PM PDT |
| Philosophy Politics Economics Posted: 08 Oct 2011 09:12 AM PDT
| Budget 2012: Najib Fails Reform Credentials Posted: 07 Oct 2011 05:48 PM PDT Budget 2012 fails to live up to the Prime Minister's reform pledges in NEM, GTP and ETP
The expectations were high for a pre-election budget where Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak will stamp his "reformist" credentials. It is for the Prime Minister to put into action the various reform pledges made in his cornerstone policy blueprints – the New Economic Model (NEM), Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP).
However, the announcement of the budget left much to be desired as little has changed beyond tweaking the budget of the previous financial year. Instead what is perhaps the most worrying is that Malaysians are like the proverbial frog in the hot soup – where the frog does not realise the soup is slowly but surely reaching the boiling point.
We may not yet be facing the crisis of Greek proportions, but Budget 2012 is doing very little to avert such eventuality, leaving the Malaysian economy nakedly exposed to the inevitability.
Federal Government Debt
Our Federal Government debt has increased rapidly from RM242 billion in 2004 to RM363 billion in 2009 and RM456 billion in 2011. That represents a marked 88.4% increase in debt over the past 7 years. It is also an increase of 25.6% or nearly RM100 billion over 2 years.
The increase in debt has increased the pressure on reigning in our budget deficit as our annual debt service commitments have increased to RM20.5 billion next year from only half the amount 5 years ago in 2007.
While our federal government debt to GDP ratio is still at a moderate 53.8%, a far cry from Greece's 117%, we are not far from Spain's 64% or Ireland's 67%, both of whom are facing economic turbulence of their own.
Our debt levels will only worsen in the next few years as we embark on record levels of infrastructure spending such as the RM53 billion Klang Valley MRT project which is expected to be funded entirely on debt.
Wages and Pensions
At the same time, our public sector expenditure is increasingly mirroring that of the European countries with ballooning civil service obligations. The budgeted expenditure for wages and pensions for 2012 is a whopping RM64.1 billion, an increase of RM6.2 billion or 10.8% budgeted for 2011. The increase is even more worrying when contrasted against the budgeted RM36.9 billion 2007, a 73.7% increase in just 5 years.
The GTP had promised a more efficient and cost effective government and civil service. What we are seeing from the Budget is only on which is indebting our children, entrenching our structural problems and very weak expenditure controls.
Economic Growth
Despite the Governments efforts in the ETP, our manufacturing and export statistics paint a starkly different picture.
Our export sector grew a miserly 2.7% in 2011 against 13.2% in 2010. However, we should be further alarmed by the fact that the growth was a result of increased contributions from exports of rubber, paper, textiles, clothes and shoes which grew in excess of 15%, and the petroleum products by 9.3%. Our electrical and electronics sector, which constitutes 26.4% of our total exports industry shrunk by 4.9% in 2011.
From the above indicators, there appears to be a shift away from higher value-added export sectors to the primary products industry such as rubber, wood, textiles and crude oil. This is the exact reverse of what we are trying to achieve via the ETP.
Budget deficit
Based on the Economic Report, we are expected to meet our deficit target of 5.4% for this year only because our revenues had grown beyond the expected in the 2010 budget due to very strong commodity prices. The Government has managed to collect RM21.1 billion of extra revenue on top of the originally budget RM165.8 billion. If not for the unexpected increase in government revenue, our budget deficit would have been a shocking 7.9%.
The Government is planning a 4.7% deficit for 2012, a figure which doesn't give hope that the 2.5% deficit target promised by Najib can be met by 2015. Even then, based on poor expenditure controls and the habitual ad hoc expenditure patterns of past BN governments, even meeting the 4.7% target will be a challenge, especially if commodity prices were to fall below expectations next year.
Optimistic projections
Finally, despite having achieved on 4.2% growth in the first half of 2011, and a slowing global economy in the face of another potential economic crisis, the Government has retained its unrealistic growth assumptions of 5.0 to 5.5%. To meet the target, Malaysia's economy will have to grow by at least 5.7% in the 2nd half of the year, which is highly optimistic to say the least.
The Federal Government's unrealistic expectations coupled with a budget which failed to demonstrate substantive reforms and political will for change makes the 2012 budget a highly disappointing and puts in serious doubt our ability to become a high income nation as aspired in Najib's New Economic Model. | | IWK Should Be Returned To Local Councils Posted: 06 Oct 2011 09:38 AM PDT We welcome the reply by Finance Ministry to my question in parliament today as to whether the Indah Water Konsortium will be privatised to 1MDB together with other private entities such as Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd.
When asked to confirm if the IWK will be privatised in whatever form to 1MDB, the Deputy Finance Minister, Datuk Donald Lim has responded that it will not. He has further added that IWK will instead be restructured and placed under the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water.
However, we would like to call upon the Government to take a further step of decentralising the IWK sewerage treatment and management business, and returning it to their respective local councils. The IWK was formed in 1994 as part of Dr Mahathir's privatisation initiative and took over all the relevant functions from the local government authorities. To ensure increased effectiveness and greater responsiveness to issues faced by the people, it is crucial that the local councils are empowered to manage its services.
The centralisation of IWK services has resulted in a costly privatisation exercise where the Government was bailed out IWK from its concessionaire with RM192 million in 2000. The exercise has since resulted in further cost to the government amounting to RM1.2 billion to make up IWK's operational deficits since then.
We would warn the Government against reversing the decision to reject 1MDB's privatisation proposal, especially when attempting to privatise to parties which are facing financial difficulties such as Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd. The latter had recently announced that its shareholder's funds have plunged to RM36 million breaching the Practice Note 17 guidelines of a minimum of RM40 million of Bursa Malaysia before receiving reprieve from Bursa to regularise its position by June 2012.
Should the Government decide at any point of time to revive the privatisation exercise, such exercise must be conducted in an open, competitive and transparent manner to ensure that the interest of the rakyat is prioritised, and the cost to the Government minimised. | | MRT: Tunnel Realignment for Luxury Bungalow? Posted: 05 Oct 2011 10:40 AM PDT The Land Public Transport Authority (SPAD), Pemandu and Syarikat Prasarana (or its new owner MRT Co.) must answer to the public for the double standards which have been shown in its treatment of a VIP bungalow in Jalan Damansara, off Jalan Duta. In the original plan, the tunnel was clearly shown to pass through underneath the VIP bungalow, which based on the arguments put forth by SPAD and Pemandu so far, necessitates the acquisition of the land. The original plan is attached in Diagram A. The contract for the tunnel "portal" has already been awarded and works commenced near the site. Diagram A: Original Alignment Diagram B: New Alignment However, for reasons best known to the authorities, the works on the original site has now been stopped, the tunnel portal relocated and a variation order has been issued to the contractor. The last minute tunnel realignment can be seen in the updated plan shown in Diagram B, where the tunnel no longer passes underneath the VIP house.
The costly and last minute change flies in the face of SPAD and Pemandu's arguments that the tunnel route has already been optimised and finalised and is no longer subject to change. The tunnel route, passing through Chinatown and Bukit Bintang has sparked protests from landowners in the areas because of the authorities' intent to acquire all land above the tunnel.
This is despite the fact that we have argued that the Government is able to, under the amended Land Acquisition Act, acquire the underground land without having to affect the land and its use on the surface. Alternatively, the land owners have suggested that the tunnel routes can be realigned to prevent the costly and inconvenient acquisitions. However, the Government has to date, refused acquiesce to the requests from the landowners.
Now with the fact that SPAD did indeed make a realignment concession to "save" a VIP's bungalow house from being affected by the tunnel route, the Government must explain its hypocrisy and double-standards in dealing with the above issues. On the one hand, the Government remains stubborn in refusing to hear out the pleas of the landowners and traders in Jalan Sultan and Bukit Bintang, many of whom have been earning a living there for decades, while on the other hand, the Government goes out of its way to save a luxury bungalow, despite its cost to the taxpayers. | |
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