INFORMATION on the people’s race and religion contained in the MyKad chip is still needed for data and statistical collection purpose, the Dewan was told. Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Liew Vui Keong said this was among several factors that still needed to be considered before a proposal to remove the race column from official forms could be implemented.
“While a person’s race can be ascertained from his or her name, it is still difficult to determine this for those in Sabah and Sarawak,” he told Lim Lip Eng (DAP - Segambut).
Besides, he said, forms relating to society restructuring still required information on race although forms regarding poverty eradication, registration for examinations or sports participation did not. Lim asked if the Government was serious in deleting the column on race, religion and bumiputra status in all government forms and when and how it would be implemented.
Liew said even developed countries like Australia, Britain and the United States needed information on race in certain forms to ensure there would be equal opportunities for all.
A PEOPLE-centric budget for next year focusing on maintaining and upgrading existing public amenities as well as improving services is expected to be unveiled by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) today. Kuala Lumpur mayor Datuk Ahmad Fuad Ismail who disclosed some details of the 2010 budget at a meeting with Kuala Lumpur MP’s on Friday had said the budget of RM2.12bil is aimed at ensuring that KLites enjoy a better quality of life with a better administered DBKL. DBKL’s 2010 budget with the theme “Putting People First’’ is aimed at promoting integrity and transparency and to emphasise on people-centric projects. DBKL has allocated RM1.102bil for administration costs for cleanliness, beautification, upgrading of pipes, roads, public amenities, recreation as well as safety while the RM1.07bil for development cost will focus more on projects that would benefit the residents. As for revenue, a bulk of DBKL earnings are from assessment (RM755mil), sale of asset/housing (RM451mil), rental of public housing (RM65mil), licence and permit (RM47.96mil) and planning and construction (RM116 mil). DBKL would also receive various grants from the Federal government totalling millions for administration and development purposes. Even though the budget is supposed to be more people friendly, city MP’s are disappointed that their request for a more detailed budget was not granted.
“They are talking about integrity and transparency and being accountable, but they are not practising it,’’ said disgruntled Cheras MP Tan Kok Wai. “Open up all the 20 departments in DBKL and show the various projects and contracts given out. The Public Works Department alone has over 100 projects amounting to hundreds of millions of ringgit. Show us all the contracts,’’ he said. Tan said that the DBKL is the third biggest spender in the country. “Compare KL’s RM2.12bil against Selangor’s RM1.2bil. On paper it would seem that KL’s two million residents are getting a fair deal compared to Selangor’s 5.6 million residents but KLites have the right to know where their money is going,’’ he added. Batu MP Tian Chua said that DBKL should allow elected reps to give input when formulating the budget. “Not just the budget. They should also let us see when tabling their annual audited accounts. We have the right to know how people’s money is being spent so there is some monitoring. This is certainly inadequate,’’ he said. Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar said DBKL needs to review the contracts of its service providers like Alam Flora. “Waste collection service has deteriorated ever since Alam Flora took over the management of waste in the city. “DBKL has to honour numerous contracts that are still running but the quality and service performance of these contractors must be re-examined as well,” she said. She also said the surplus budget, thanks to federal government assistance, formed a whopping 67.6% of the development expenditure and which also included a one-off payment amounting to RM451.3mil. “There is no rationale for distribution of development expenditure according to constituencies. DBKL is not answerable to Parliament. One example is the number of public housing in Bandar Tun Razak, Lembah Pantai and Bukit Bintang - 11, 3 and 5 respectively. “You would expect that the budget would follow the number of housing but Bandar Tun Razak gets RM79.2mil, Lembah Pantai 26mil and Bukit Bintang RM240mil. “As such, the RM2.12bil budget (even higher than that for Selangor and Penang), has to be tabled in Parliament, to constituents and to MPs. “This is made even more necessary with the disclosure that not even the Auditor General has the right to review the big budget.
“Such powers have been given to DBKL to freely use taxpayers’ money with no proper check and balance, save for some episodes of internal auditing.” “We were also informed, after a query, that an item under maintenance costing RM250mil (for 2010) has been transferred from the FT Ministry to DBKL in the form of the said amount. Hence for 2010, the maintenance item under the FT Ministry has been effectively erased. “How do we monitor and compare past and present implementation of maintenance works in our cities.
Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng feels that the budget allocation is a huge amount. “Make no mistake. It is still a deficit budget despite the extra windfall from the sale of PPR units. The RM451mil revenue from the sale of the flats is a ‘one off thing’ and DBKL cannot rely on that,’’ added Lim.
Lim Lip Eng minta Menteri Pengangkutan menyatakan selepas laporan SPRM, PDRM dan tindakan mahkamah dibuat, apakah rancangan dalam 2 tahun terdekat bagi memulihkan PKFZ kepada keadaan yang mendatangkan untung; berapa fee guaman telah dibayar dalam tindakan mahkamah berkaitan isu ini.
Jawapan Kementerian Pengangkutan:
Kerajaan telah menubuhkan satu Pasukan Petugas Khas Projek Pembangunan PKFZ yang dipengerusikan oleh Y.Bhg. Tan Sri Ketua Setiausaha Negara di mana antara lainnya:-
a)merangka dan mengesyorkan model perniagaan bagi mengembang, memajukan dan memaksimumkan pulangan pada PKFZ; dan
b)merangka dan mengesyorkan pelan dan strategi bagi menarik pelaburan tempatan dan asing.
Sehingga 16.10.2009, Lembaga Pelabuhan Kelang telah memfailkan 4 kes di mahkamah berhubung dengan isu PKFZ di mana 3 daripadanya merupakan Writ Saman manakala 1 adalah Saman Pemula. Memandangkan kes-kes ini baru sahaja difailkan dan belum dibicarakan di mahkamah, maka LPK belum membuat sebarang bayaran fee guaman. My synopsis: For now, the ministry of transport has no idea in how to revive PKFZ in the coming 2 years.
All KL MPs are invited to have a meeting with mayor Dato’ Ahmad Fuad Ismail this Friday for 2 hours. This will be the third meeting with mayor after his appointment last year.
Source: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News (Reports by V. Vasudevan, Sajahan Waheed and Lydia Gomez, 01/12/2009) ONE government officer has been taken to court for trafficking in Myanmar refugees, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said yesterday. He said the ministry is investigating the issue which has been cited as one of the main reasons for Malaysia being blacklisted by the US State Department in its Trafficking in Persons Report this year. Malaysia and 16 other countries were placed on Tier 3 of the report which analysed efforts taken to combat human trafficking in 173 countries. In a written reply to Lim Lip Eng (DAP-Segambut), Hishammuddin said the government officer was among the 39 human trafficking cases prosecuted so far. He said since the Anti-Human Trafficking Act was enforced in February last year, 88 people have been arrested and five were charged and convicted. Other efforts to tackle the problem include a five-year National Anti-Human Trafficking Strategic Action Plan; setting up more shelters for victims, especially in Sabah and Sarawak, including one shelter for male victims; working with Australia, United States and the Netherlands to carry out awareness programmes for enforcement officers and improving the cooperation network in neighbouring and sender countries. "The Myanmar refugee problem is not something that can be handled by Malaysia alone because this is a regional and international problem. "This issue has to be dealt with carefully by rectifying the root cause." He said the Attorney-General's Chambers was reviewing the act to resolve any ambiguity and to study whether human smuggling should be included in the law.
