MALAYSIAKINI LATEST NEWS: SWISS NGO DENY IGP CLAIM,........ PRS LEADER JOIN PKR ....OTHER INTERESTING NEWS!

The following news are taken from Malaysiakini and I have no comment on the news nor I'm involved. The publishing of the news are merely for my leisure reading and it is up to everyone of us to analyst.

LangRimba

Swiss NGO denies IGP’s claim

Swiss-based NGO Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) has rebutted claims that it has refused to cooperate with the police, a claim made by the Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan.

MCPX

BMF, an environmental and human rights organisation, said that it was surprised that Musa had alleged that they were unwilling to cooperate and offer information about the alleged rape of Penan women by logging company workers.

This was reported in The Borneo Post on Nov 7 in a front-page report titled “Uncooperative NGO stalls investigation: IGP”.

“BMF wishes to clarify that we have never been contacted by the Malaysian police on the issue,” said BMF director Lukas Straumann.

“The Borneo Post quotes the IGP as saying that ‘the NGO who brought up the issue in the first place does not want to give a statement to us now,’ is incorrect and should be rectified,” added Straumann.Probe welcomed

According to his statement, Straumann said BMF has also sent a letter to The Borneo Post to clarify the matter.

Straumann stressed that the BMF had already welcomed the probe undertaken by the police, the Women Family and Community Development Ministry and the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam).

“BMF has called for fair, independent and thorough probes and is willing to cooperate with the Malaysian authorities in order to bring about justice and help improve the victims’ situation,” he added.

Authorities immediately acted upon BMF’s widely-publicised claims of sexual abuse and rape by logging company workers on the Penan women in September.

The Criminal Investigation Department in Bukit Aman has established a special task force to probe the issue - malaysiakini.com

PRS leader join PKR

Why did Beginda Minda resign from Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS)?

MCPX

From his explanation, it seems to be a noble act on his part.

“I think it’s better for me to resign in order to ‘protect’ my president from getting into further trouble,” he told Malaysiakini.

Beginda quit the party on Wednesday after the party issued him a show-cause letter as to why he should not be sacked for indiscipline.

Last Saturday, the former Balleh PRS division publicity chief lambasted Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud and his deputy Alfred Jabu for incompetent management of the state.

Appearing on Mkini tv’s ‘Uncensored’ talk show, he also called on the duo to step down gracefully before they are forced out of office.

Soon after this, PRS president Dr James Masing was hauled up by the chief minister for an explanation.

Taib had reportedly said at a State BN meeting later that he felt like he was being stabbed right in the heart while he was sleeping. The remarks, it has been said, was directed at Masing.

Beginda said he resigned because he didn’t want to put Masing who is also state land development minister into trouble.

Sent to party’s sec-gen

He did not elaborate, but this is understood to mean that because of his close relationship with the person he often referred to as ‘my president’ had put Masing in an awkward position among his BN colleagues, especially from PBB.

Beginda said he sent in his resignation letter to the party’s secretary-general Wilfred Nissom, giving the reason that the party had deviated from its original objective of looking after Dayak interests in the state.

He said he had not decided which party to join but indicated that a lot of young and educated people were joining Parti Keadilan Rakyat led by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim and that this would be an option for him too.

Beginda also scoffed at rumours that a former senior PRS leader and corporate leader Sng Chee Hua was behind him.

A one-time close associate of Sng, Beginda said he had not spoken to Sng for many years.

He said it was a lie for anyone to say that Sng was behind him, adding that he had voluntarily come forward to make the statement on Mkini.tv- malaysiakini.com

ECONOMIC REPORT

SOURCE FROM EDGE DAILY AND MALAYSIAKINI

BNM spent US$12b to defend ringgit in Sept, says Moody’s

BNM spent US$12b to defend ringgit in Sept, says Moody’s

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) is estimated to have spent US$12 billion (RM42.4 billion) during September to defend the ringgit, said Moody’s Economy.com.

Moody’s said the ringgit was among Asia-Pacific currencies that had depreciated despite current account surpluses, the others being the Singapore dollar and Philippine peso. “Sound current accounts may have created a bottom for these currencies and they have ‘only’ depreciated by 5% to 10% since June,” Moody’s Economy.com economist Tine Olsen said in her report yesterday.

She said other currencies in the middle group had fallen because of deleveraging, while those experiencing the biggest depreciation, including South Korea, Indonesia and India, also struggled with current account deficits.

Olsen said Asia-Pacific currency markets had been driven recently by the liquidity squeeze and by current accounts as risk-averse investors moved funds from high-risk markets to safe havens to avoid losses, and also to preserve liquidity.

These include the unwinding of carry trades — the repatriation of funds from high-interest countries to repay loans taken out in low-interest countries.

“As the liquidity crisis eases, investors turn their attention to economic fundamentals to determine the value of national currencies,” Olsen said.

She said the global economic slowdown had encouraged investors to avoid countries with deteriorating current accounts, as they feared export weakness would put downward pressure on currencies.

‘Gates-Soros’ land scam dupes many

By Joe Fernandez

The Consumer Association of Sabah and Labuan (Cash) has stumbled on a well-organised ‘land scam’ that has duped thousands of unsuspecting owners in the state, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia of apparently small sums of money over the last two years.
Cash secretary-general Hashima Hasbullah Yahya estimates that about 7, 500 people in Sabah, mostly Chinese, 500 in Sarawak and 2, 000 in Peninsular Malaysia have been relieved of their money by a network set in place by the Tawau-based individuals operating as a legitimate company. She declined to reveal the name of the company or the principals behind it except to say that two directors are actively involved in the scam.

“Let the police do their work and announce their findings. We came into the picture after nine victims approached us after lodging police reports against the company. There are many others out there who may have just decided to forget about their unfortunate experience,” she said.

The modus operandi of the company, according to the nine victims, is to appoint 10 to 12 principals in each state. The principals in turn have to appoint agents or runners and the number can run into hundreds.

The agents would deal with landowners who are interested in entering into a joint-venture with Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, and his billionaire ‘partner’, the hedge fund operator George Soros who was vilified for the 1997 Asian currency crisis which caused a run on the Thai baht, Indonesian rupiah and Malaysian ringgit, among others.

Elaborate seminars

Apparently, according to the tall tale spun by the Tawau company, Gates and Soros have jointly established an initial US$20 million fund to either buy up land or enter into a joint venture with land owners in Malaysia for various development projects.

The scam begins with landowners, many with as little as an acre, being persuaded by the network set up by the company to attend a ’seminar’ which will go into the details of the joint-venture land development with Gates and Soros.

Each participant i.e. landowner has to fork out between RM50 and RM100 to attend the seminar, the varying amounts depending on the location and venue. Often, the participation fee was paid by either the principals or the agents or both who try to rope in as many participants as possible for the ’seminars’.

The seminars are an elaborate hype conducted by the two directors of the company.

Participants are asked during the seminar to provide a photostat copy of their land title or grant for the company’s verification as well as for forwarding to Gates and Soros. Each participant would also have to pay the company RM50 as processing fee and for the administrative costs entailed.

Police investigating

Landowners who are ‘interested’ in making their landed property available for joint venture with Gates and Soros would have to open a joint bank account with another person, perhaps a friend, family member or relative. The account holders would each have to fork out RM50 to the company as registration fees.

Upon successful completion of the joint-venture ‘deal’, for example, the landowner would receive in US dollars, 10 percent of the land cost from the millions of US dollars allocated to the company to carry out the land transactions; the principal would receive one per cent and the agent concerned 0.5 percent. The 10 percent would be credited into the joint account.

The 10 percent sum would be preceded by a personal phone call to the landowner by either Gates or Soros himself.

According to Hashima, the nine victims who approached Cash are all either principals or agents who lost a small fortune paying upfront the various fees on behalf of their landowner clients.

“The scam, according to the nine victims, have drawn in many influential people as principals and agents and this made the whole modus operandi ‘credible’ to those lured by the company to their misfortune,” she said.

“The sums involved, if totaled, snowballs into millions. We are also concerned that the photocopied land titles would be falsified and misused in some manner. We have had reports in the past of even photocopied land titles used for ulterior purposes,” she added.

Hashima urged other victims of the scam to come forward and report to the police and Cash.

Police were not available for comment but it was learnt that they will issue a statement next week on the nine police reports lodged. The matter is presently under serious investigation.

Police will also seek the co-operation of the Land and Survey Department in the matter.