The Road Less Travelled, Senai-Desaru Expressway

A-G’s report lists faults and cost overruns for Senai-Desaru Expressway

PETALING JAYA: Despite the land acquisition costs for the Senai-Desaru Expressway project in Johor ballooning from RM365mil to RM740.6mil, the highway has been found to be unsatisfactory and a danger to road users.
According to the Auditor-General’s Report, among the reasons for the doubling of land acquisition costs were the compensation payment which exceeded market prices, high injurious affection and severance payments, and interest of 8% due to late repayments.
The completed 77km-Senai Desaru Highway, worth RM1.37bil, was also found not to be in accordance with specifications, resulting in damage to the road surface and endangering road users.
“Although the project for Package 3 was 100% completed in April, the road surface is undulating and river protection has not been built on the Sungai Selat Mendana, Sungai Layang, Sungai Papan, Sungai Semenchu and Sungai Chemaran.

Bad job: Despite its high cost, the Senai-Desaru Expressway was found it to be a danger to road users.

“Revetment protection has yet to be constructed along the Pulau Juling Highway causing soil erosion along the area and pollution to the mangrove swamps,” the report said.
The construction agreement for the project was signed between the Federal Government and the concession company on July 31, 2004, with the intention of linking Johor Baru to the Desaru tourist area, and to reduce the congestion on the Pasir Gudang Highway.
The report also found that the statistics prepared by the Malaysian Highway Authority (MHA), which regulates the project management of the highway, showed that the actual number of vehicles using the highway was less than the traffic forecast by the concession company (which was approved by the Road Planning Division of the Public Works Ministry in December 2001).
The actual traffic volume achieved was only 1.9% of the forecast for three months in 2009, and 8.3% in 2010.
The report also found that the concession company had failed to complete the construction work in the stipulated period and did not maintain the highway satisfactorily.
“The concession company has yet to take action to resolve the non-compliance reports issued by the MHA,” the report said, adding that delays in completing the project had resulted in delays for the Government receiving the income of 20% of the profits of the toll collection.
The report then recommended for MHA to review the feasibility studies done by the concession company to ensure that the facts presented were accurate, and to take into account realistic land acquisition costs to avoid unnecessary significant cost increases, and for the concession agreement to be reviewed thoroughly.
The Treasury Department said that, although the initial planning had been done thoroughly, the land conversion factor as well as the development order by the state authority had contributed to the spike in land acquisition costs.
“This is because the Government had to pay a high compensation rate on buildings which had already been built,” the Treasury said, adding that the acquisition cost was first estimated in 2002, while Valuation and Property Services Department had valued the land based on rates as at November 2004, which was higher than in 2002.
“To prevent this from recurring, allocation for land acquisition will be capped for highway privatisation projects.
“If the land acquisition cost exceeds the capped amount, then the additional cost for the land acquisition should be borne by the concession company,” the report stated.
On the issue of the undulating road surface, the Treasury said all 15 problematic locations had been identified and the report for the repair work had also been submitted to MHA on April 29.

Source: The Star - Saturday, October 29,2011

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Motorists want extension of lanes
By DESIREE TRESA GASPER

KOTA TINGGI: Motorists have expressed their disappointment on the last stretch of the newly opened Senai–Desaru highway.
The last stretch spanning 27km from Cahaya Baru to Desaru includes a single plane cable styled bridge across Sungai Johor but most of the road only has two lanes.
Safety officer S.Amuldass, 50, said that the last stretch was more like a trunk road.
“Of course our travelling time is shorter by half, but we were puzzled as to why the road only has two lanes instead of four,” he said.

Only two lanes: The new stretch of the Senai-Pasir Gudang- Desaru expressway which was officially opened recently. Many users were disappointed with the new stretch of the expressway as it only has two lanes.

Factory worker Looi Hock Kiat, 44, who agreed with Amuldass said that it was the only flaw on the new highway to the dual passageway.
“If the road is not expanded, I foresee traffic jams in the future as many people will be travelling to Desaru especially during the holiday season,” he said.
Assistant manager Mohd Azman Emus Abdullah, 41, said that he was also surprised to discover new stretch with only two lanes.
“The only area along the stretch which has four lanes is the bridge itself but the moment you cross the bridge, you are back to a two-laned highway,” he said.
Desaru Tourism Association chairman Lt Kol (Rtd) Mohd Jamal Salleh however said that the opening of the highway was a blessing for the tourism industry in Desaru.
“Most of the resort owners and other tourism players here have upgraded their services and renovated their premises because we are all anticipating greater tourist arrivals with the opening of the highway,” he said.
Commenting on the matter Senai-Desaru Expressway Bhd (SDEB) chief executive officer Mustaza Salim said that the decision to build two lanes for the last stretch was based on earlier traffic forecasts conducted in the area.
“We will continue to monitor the flow of traffic and if needed we will widen the roads,” he said adding that so far he has received positive feedback from motorists.

Source: The Star - Tuesday, June 14, 2011

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Read More: Senai-Pasir Gudang-Desaru Expressway

The Maid - Unholy Acts In The Holiest Place (14)

Another Indonesian maid dies in S. Arabia 
Mustaqim Adamrah

“Sister, I’m sick. I cannot stop vomiting blood. If I die, please do me a favor. I entrust father and mother to you.”

It was the last text message from 18-year-old Ernawati binti Sujono Konderin, an Indonesian migrant worker in Saudi Arabia, sent to her family on Jan. 26 before her final contact by the phone with her older sister, Yenni Larasati, on Feb. 1.

“I was really sad when reading her fi nal text message. I rushed to Jakarta on Jan. 31 from Tanjung Pinang [Riau Islands] to report Ernawati’s situation to the Foreign Ministry,”
Yenni said on Tuesday in a press conference at Migrant CARE Headquarters.

“On Feb. 1, [Ernawati] said over the phone that her employer’s son had tried to rape her. She was crying. After that, there were no more calls or text messages from her.”

Yenni said Ernawati was forced to kneel while her employer often slapped, punched, kicked, threw things at her or whipped her with a hose.
The employer’s lover allegedly followed suit.
She never received her salary, Yenni added.

Ernawati died on Feb. 10, 10 days after Yenni filed the report, from injuries allegedly sustained from physical abuse at the hands of her employer and his lover, according to Yenni.

“Every time I asked a ministry employee about my report, they told me it was still being processed — until my sister’s co-worker called our family on Feb. 10, saying she had died.”

Yenni said she was finally convinced of her sister’s death on Feb. 13, when someone at a hospital called her on Ernawati’s cell phone after Yenni’s numerous text messages and phone calls went unanswered.

“The guy at the other end said there was an Indonesian who had died and had been at the hospital for three days. I got all this information on my own, not from the ministry or the embassy,” Yenni said.

In a letter the Indonesian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Gatot Abdullah Mansyur, sent in February to the foreign minister, the manpower and transmigration minister and the head of the National Agency for Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI), he said that the Al-Muntazah police in Hail had received a report about an Indonesian migrant worker who was being treated for swallowing rat poison.

“How can the ministry and the embassy say my sister died from rat poison while at the same time they tell me an autopsy on her body is about to begin?” Yenni said.

She also said the ministry and the embassy insisted they could not reach Ernawati’s workplace in time because it was in Hail, 700 kilometers from the embassy.

“Was it really that hard to get there? I flew from Tanjung Pinang, more than a thousand kilometers from Jakarta, to seek justice and it took only one hour and 20 minutes,” she said.

“Had they immediately followed up on my report and evacuated my sister, she might still alive now.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Michael Tene and the director for legal aid and protection of Indonesian nationals overseas, Tatang Budie Utama Razak, could not be reached for comment.

University of Indonesia international relations expert Hariyadi Wirawan said embassy staff did not arrive in time possibly due to diplomats’ reluctance to travel that distance or a lack of financial and human resources.

Only two weeks ago, an Indonesian maid named Ruyati binti Satubi was beheaded by Saudi authorities after being convicted of murdering her employer, who had mistreated her.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono met Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Indonesia Abdulrahman Mohammed Amen al-Khayyat at the latter’s request at the State Palace on Tuesday.

However, instead of expressing displeasure, Yudhoyono hailed Saudi Arabia for “giving aid” to an Islamic organization.

Migrant CARE executive director Anis Hidayah said she had reported the ministry, the embassy and the BNP2TKI to the Ombudsman Commission, which receives complaints of poor public service, for alleged “negligence that led to Ernawati’s death”.

Source: The Jakarta Post - June 30, 2011

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Divorcee Ruyati binti Satubi became a migrant worker for the first time in 1999.
She returned to Saudi Arabia again and worked for six years.

Her children asked her to change her mind when she was about to leave for the third time.
She was adamant of not wanting to see her three children facing bleak future.
One of them is in nursing school.
And she wanted to buy her son a car.

She insisted to fly to the Holy Land seeking fortune yet again, only to meet bitterness.
After a year and four months, she was beheaded.

From information that the family gathered, the grandmother of seven was tortured a lot from the very beginning of employment.
She had broken her leg during the initial three months, because of torture.
She was not admitted to hospital, but was treated by one of her employer’s children was a doctor.

Although Ruyati was a victim of violence by her employer, during trial, Ruyati confessed murdering 64-year old Khairiyah Majlad on 12 January, 2010.

She was not paid her three-months salary of SR 2400 despite being asked many times.
She was found guilty of of ruthlessly killing her employer, by repeatedly stabbing her.

For her offense, the 54-year old housemaid was executed by decapitation in Saudi Arabia.
One more Indonesian worker was beheaded in Saudi Arabia, on June 18, 2011.

The Indonesian embassy had not been advised beforehand about the execution.
The government saw the beheading as an unfair decision.
The execution over Ruyati is a great shock for many, irritated a lot of parties.

Migrant Care, an NGO that works for the rights of Indonesian migrant workers stressed that the government has failed to protect its citizen.
It had earlier reminded the government about Ruyati’s legal process in March 2011.

But the government denied it had been slow in preventing the decapitation penalty.
The execution has left Yudhoyono's government on the defensive as critics said there was not enough protection for Indonesian workers overseas.

Indonesia had summoned the Saudi envoy to express its "disappointment and deep regret" over the execution.

"We respect their legal system, but in this case, we feel they have failed to fulfil the Geneva convention on how to interact among countries," Teuku Faizasyah, the presidential spokesman for international affairs told Reuters.

"(The Saudi government) are being disrespectful of convention, they should have informed the embassy on any occurrence involving our nationals, especially in such cases where they are planning to execute our nationals," he said.

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Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Indonesia Abdulrahman Mohammed Amin Al-Khayyat on Monday, June 20, had apologised for the execution of Ruyati.

He expressed regret that Indonesian Embassy was not given prior notice of the execution.
He assured Indonesia that it will not happen ever again.

******

Through RI Consulate General in Jeddah, the government has fought hard against the death penalty.
It had requesting the Saudi Board of Pardon (lajnatul afwu) to release Ruyati.

But the deceased family did not forgive her act.
The family did not forgive their 54-year old domestic helper Ruyati binti Satubi.

Indonesian government could not break the rigidity of death sentence in Saudi Arabia.

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Ruyati’s three children in Bekasi, West Java, were initially informed by Migrant Care of Ruyati’s first hearing session on May 17, 2010.

In January 2011, they were told that the case was still on-going.
The family was then notified by the Foreign Ministry about the schedule for the next hearing that would take place in May 2011.

They had been struggling hard to find news about their mother's condition in foreign land.

Before long, a verdict was delivered, followed by an execution without them ever knowing anything about it.

Four hours before the mother was to be executed, one of her daughter saw the sight of 'her' in their kitchen.

Later, Migrant Care called to inform the mother had passed away.

******

The only person who had knowledge of the violence that led to 54-year-old Ruyati murdering her employer was Warni.
She is a fellow Indonesian worker who was hired by Ruyati’s employer too.

She knew a great deal about what Ruyati had to endure prior to the murder as they slept in the same room. She witnessed how the grandmother was punched and kicked.

Warni was reluctant to discuss Ruyati’s ordeal as it was Ruyati’s own request.
The grandmother had told her not to tell the children about what she saw.
She only revealed the truth after local police in Mecca moved in to arrest her.

******

Irwan Setiawan, the youngest of Ruyati’s three children, remember his mother as “a quiet and well-adjusted woman”.
She was reluctant to talk much about hardship she endured as a migrant worker.
She only talked about the good things in Saudi Arabia.

Irwan expressed his disappointment towards the role of the Indonesian government in helping his mother’s cause.
He felt neglected.

Ruyati’s family said they were let down by PT Dasa Graha Utama, a labour recruiting company which arranged Ruyati’s employment in Saudi Arabia.
At her age, Ruyati should have been ineligible to be sent abroad as a domestic worker.
The company had falsified information about the grandmother's age by registering her as 11 years younger.

Both the government and PT Dasa Graha Utama have responded to the grievances from Ruyati’s family by offering Rp 90 million (US$10,440) in compensation.

The family would wait until they have their mother's body home, despite information from the government that she was already been buried in Mecca, not far from the body of Saidatina Siti Khadijah, the wife of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.

There are 216 Indonesians overseas facing execution, including 26 in Saudi Arabia.

Currently, there are 2.2 million Indonesians working in Malaysia and 1.5 million in Saudi Arabia.
Around 90 percent work as house maids and drivers for individual employers.

The Maid - Chosen Over Mate (2)

Picking Maid Over Mate 

Is it a fetish?
THOMAS Jefferson was alleged to have sired several children with Sally Hemings, a slave at Monticello. Famous politician senator Strom Thurmond went to bed with his African-American maid and kept it a secret until he was 100 years old. Though one would assume this age-old practice of having sex with the "help" has long passed since the days of slavery, this is not the case at all.

Be it a fetish for French maid costumes and feather dusters, or a series of power trips, men are still turned on by their maids, as revealed in the recent case of former California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Last month, the 63-year-old Terminator star finally came clean about his affair and the "love child" he had with a two-decade-long household employee.
While his story is shocking, some countries have taken the maid fetish to another level.

In Japan, meido kafe (maid cafe) is the hottest trend in town. Designed to look like private homes, establishments like Tokyo's Cure Maid Cafe feature young waitresses dressed in French maid costumes.

They treat diners like masters and mistresses, sometimes offering massages and even kneeling by the table to stir cream and sugar into beverages.

Fuelled by sexy maid-themed anime, the trend is now taking off in Asia, too.

Are Malaysians spared from being enamoured with the help? Apparently not. 

Growing trend in maid-employer affairs
A maid agency operator in Klang says he is noticing a growing trend in husbands taking a liking to maids.

"I've run a maid agency for more than six years without any problems. However, for the past two years, there's been a rise in husbands hoping to 'bed' their maids.

"Since most of the maids I provide are young Filipino girls, who clean apartments on an hourly basis, many employers assume they can get away with taking advantage of them."

Florence, a part-time maid, was lured to Malaysia by a man whom she met on the Internet. She was hoping to start a new life in Malaysia and earn a decent living.

"I was happy when my boyfriend told me to meet him in Malaysia. He said there were good jobs here and I would earn a decent living.

"As soon as I arrived in Klang, my boyfriend introduced me to a maid agency boss. He said I had to work for about four hours in an apartment, cleaning and doing the laundry. The boss was willing to drop and pick me up from the apartment guardhouse.

"My first few jobs were simple; I only had to deal with the 'maam' of the apartments.

"One day, I was asked to clean a new client's apartment and was shocked to find only the husband there. I did my work as usual.

"But, when I went to make the bed, I heard someone entering and locking the door. I was scared to see the husband in the room. He said he wanted to make sure I was doing a good job.

"But when I felt his arms around my waist, I started yelling. He told me not to worry because he would pay me a lot of money to have sex with him. I pushed him aside and screamed even louder.

"He got scared the neighbours might hear me, so he left the room. I quickly packed my things and left."
Because of her harrowing experience, Florence is planning to return to the Philippines as soon as she has enough money. 

Victims choose silence
Ananda S.P., who runs a maid agency in the Klang Valley, believes such cases are rampant but most victims choose to be silent.

"There are no statistics to show how many of these cases exist because most of the maids are threatened. They only talk about the problem when they're about to leave the country or have already left. Only about one in 50 cases is reported to us during their contract period.

"Generally, this is a problem with Indonesian and Filipino maids. This could be because there's a higher ratio of them here and many of them are also attractive."

Ananda believes there are two sides to the coin: if there are no givers, there won't be any takers.

"These days, most wives spend less time at home and more at work. Men, on the other hand, hold higher positions and have the flexibility to be in the house more.

"Most of the time, these men strike a conversation with the maid. They ask about the maid's background and financial situation before feigning sympathy. Before long, they tempt the maid with extra cash and goodies.

"From the maid's perspective, since she's already married, this is similar to 'servicing' another master. Although this is far from being acceptable, most maids give in to temptation because of their financial situation back home."

Ananda says although most of these sexual advances are consensual, the marriage is at risk.

"In many instances, the maid will try to break up the home by finding favour with the husband. This is where trouble begins because once a wife starts to be suspicious, she will want the maid to leave. In the end, the maid will lose earning a living in Malaysia.

"Sometimes, the maid gets pregnant and is afraid to go home. She usually seeks an abortion. If this happens, we ask the husband to pay compensation to the maid to enable her to return to her country. More often than not, this breaks up the marriage and the couple get divorced.

"However, if the maid is forced to have sexual relations with her employer, we act in the best interests of the maid. We lodge a police report unless the maid is agreeable to the compensation."

Ananda says employers should realise that when they employ a maid, they're inviting a guest into their home, who probably has no money or contacts. They are responsible for her safety and well-being. She's not there to be a sex slave.

HELP University College vice-president and psychologist Dr Goh Chee Leong believes the strength of a marriage is the predictor for whether affairs happen.

"The will and discipline of either party determine the strength of a marriage. When a party is weak, that's when you give in to temptation.

"Wives or husbands who encounter situations like these should not blame themselves; the fault lies with the party who has cheated.

"Human beings are people with will and have the freedom to make their own decisions. No one is forced to cheat because as human beings, we pride ourselves in controlling our instincts and impulses. When we feel tempted, we have the strength to resist that temptation."

Source: New Straits Times - July 3, 2011

Rare Earth - From China To Malaysia

People Pay Price For World's Rare Earths Addiction

BAOTOU, China--Peasant farmer Wang Tao used to grow corn, potatoes and wheat within a stone's throw of a dumping ground for rare earths waste until toxic chemicals leaked into the water supply and poisoned his land.

Farmers living near the 10-square-kilometer expanse in northern China say they have lost teeth and their hair has turned white while tests show the soil and water contain high levels of cancer-causing radioactive materials.

“We are victims. The tailings dam has contaminated us,” Wang, 60, told AFP at his home near Baotou city in Inner Mongolia, home to the world's largest deposits of rare earths, which are vital in making many high-tech products.

“In this place, if you eat the contaminated food or drink the contaminated water it will harm your body,” Wang said, pointing towards lifeless fields now strewn with rubbish around Dalahai village, a few hundred meters from the dump.

China produces more than 95 percent of the world's rare earths — 17 elements used in the manufacture of products ranging from iPods to flat-screen televisions and electric cars.
Two-thirds of that is processed in mineral-rich Baotou on the edge of the Gobi desert.

Environmental groups have long criticized rare earths mining for spewing toxic chemicals and radioactive thorium and uranium into the air, water and soil, which can cause cancer and birth defects among residents and animals.

Beijing, keen to burnish its green credentials and tighten its grip over the highly sought-after metals, has started cleaning up the industry by closing illegal mines, setting tougher environmental standards and restricting exports.

But Wang and the other farmers in Dalahai blame state-owned giant Baogang Group, China's largest producer of rare earths and a major iron ore miner and steel producer, for poisoning their fields and ruining their livelihoods.

Strong winds whip across the dump's millions of tonnes of waste, blowing toxic and radioactive materials towards surrounding villages.

“It is the pollution from the tailings dam,” Wang Er, 52, told AFP, pointing a dirty finger at his spiky hair which started turning white 30 years ago.

Baogang, which has rare earths and iron ore refineries stretching for about seven kilometers along a road in the area, did not respond to AFP requests for comment. 

But a 2006 study by local environment authorities showed levels of thorium, a by-product of rare earths processing, in Dalahai's soil were 36 times higher than other areas of Baotou, state media have reported. 

“People are suffering severely,” the Chinese-language National Business Daily said in December, citing the official study. 
Sixty-six villagers died of cancer between 1993 and 2005 while crop yields fell “substantially.”

“There is not one step of the rare earth mining process that is not disastrous to the environment,” Greenpeace China's toxics campaign manager Jamie Choi said in a recent report.
Choi said the impact of the government crackdown depends on whether it is “implemented properly.”

But the environmental damage already caused by rare earths mining in China could be irreversible, according to Wang Guozhen, a former vice president of the government-linked China Nonferrous Engineering and Research Institute.

As demand for rare earths soars, China is slashing export quotas. 
Analysts say Beijing wants to drive up global prices and preserve the metals for its own burgeoning high-tech industries.
The moves have prompted complaints from foreign high-tech producers while the United States and Australia have responded by developing or reopening mines shuttered when cheaper Chinese supplies became available.

Several kilometers from the massive dumping ground is the privately-owned Baotou City Hong Tianyu Rare Earths Factory — one of dozens of operators processing rare earths, iron and coal in a dusty no-man's land.

Workers wearing blue uniforms and army camouflage runners inhale toxic fumes as huge spinning steel pipes process tonnes of rare earths bound for high-tech manufacturers in China, Japan, the United States and elsewhere.

A production manager surnamed Wang told AFP the factory produces “several thousand tonnes of rare earths a year” and the toxic waste is piped to another dumping ground in the area.

The desolate fields around Wang's village have been left fallow as farmers wait for government compensation. Some appear to have fled already, with empty houses and shops along dusty roads falling into disrepair.

Authorities have offered to pay farmers 60,000 yuan per mu (US$9,200 per 0.067 hectares) so they can move to a new village four kilometers away. 

But they won't have land to till and the farmers say the compensation is inadequate. 

Source: China Post - Monday, May 2, 2011

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Twenty Years On, Malaysia Makes Another Rare Earth Bet 
By Shannon Teoh

A worker waters the site of a rare earth metals mine in Jiangxi. China holds a virtual monopoly on rare earth supply. — file pic

KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 — Malaysia is gambling on a new processing plant in Kuantan to produce metals possibly worth over RM5 billion a year, nearly two decades after protests forced Mitsubishi Chemicals to close down a rare earth plant near Ipoh due to environmental damage — damage which it is still trying to clean up today. A New York Times (NYT) report said today Australian mining company Lynas’s refinery in Kuantan could break China’s chokehold on rare earth metals that are crucial to high technology products such as Apple’s iPhone, the Toyota Prius and Boeing’s smart bombs, said the newspaper.
“If rare earth prices stay at current lofty levels, the refinery will generate US$1.7 billion (RM5 billion) a year in exports starting late next year, equal to nearly one per cent of the entire Malaysian economy,” the newspaper said.
“But as Malaysia learned the hard way a few decades ago, refining rare earth ore usually leaves thousands of tons of low-level radioactive waste behind,” it added, referring to a plant in Bukit Merah.
The Bukit Merah Asian Rare Earth plant near Ipoh was also reported by the New York Times to be still quietly undergoing a US$100 million cleanup exercise despite shutting down in 1992.
The New York Times reported that as many as 2,500 workers are rushing to complete a US$230 million plant in Gebeng, near Kuantan, that will refine slightly radioactive ore from Australia.
It said it will be the first such plant outside China in nearly three decades as the rest of the world became wary of the environmental hazards, leaving China to control 95 per cent of global supply of the rare metals.
Beijing’s recent moves to limit exports of rare earth has propelled world prices of the material to record highs, sending industrial countries scrambling for alternatives, the report continued.
This has spurred Australian mining company Lynas to rush the refinery, which it says will meet nearly a third of the world’s demand for rare earth materials.
According to the NYT, the Malaysian government was eager for the investment by Lynas, even offering a 12-year tax holiday.
It quoted Raja Datuk Abdul Aziz bin Raja Adnan, the director-general of the Malaysian Atomic Energy Licensing Board, who said the project was only approved after an inter-agency review.
He said the report indicated that the imported ore and subsequent waste would have low enough levels of radioactivity to be manageable and safe.
“We have learned we shouldn’t give anybody a free hand,” Raja Adnan told the newspaper.
However, toxicologist Dr. Jayabalan A. Thambyappa, who has treated leukaemia victims whose illnesses he and others have attributed to the Mitsubishi plant, contends that low or not, exposure to such material remains hazardous.
“The word ‘low’ here is just a matter of perception — it’s a carcinogen,” said Dr Jayabalan.
The Bukit Merah plant was opened by Japanese company Mitsubishi Chemicals in 1985, before being shuttered in 1992 following years of protests by residents concerned with pollution, the NYT said.
Rare earths, a group of 17 elements found near the bottom of the periodic table, are not radioactive themselves.
But virtually every rare earth ore deposit around the world contains, in varying concentrations, a slightly radioactive element called thorium.

Source: The Malaysian Insider - Wednesday, March 9, 2011

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Malaysians Don’t Need Rare Earth Plant

I AM amazed that Nicholas Curtis of Lynas can say that there is no risk to his country’s nuclear waste that he wants to keep here in Malaysia (“Firm assures public of ‘zero radiation exposure’” – The Star, April 13).
His own fellow Australians don’t agree with him. He cannot take the waste back to Australia, so he will try and persuade Malaysians to let him keep his dangerous by-product here.
He and his family don’t have to live next to the rare earth plant in Kuantan. So it is easy for him to say what he has to say to do what he wants.
He cannot simply turn Malaysia into an international toxic waste dump. Some Australian MPs are now very concerned about the radiation from the nuclear waste from Lynas’ proposed project. Our leaders in Malaysia must not let the people down.
Malaysians are not less educated or less knowledgeable than Australians. We are not less health conscious.
Malaysians cannot be fooled so easily by the soothing words of a company producing controversial and hazardous by-products.
If Lynas cannot help produce toxic waste, and it cannot find any country willing to store its waste, it should return to its own country to do business. Otherwise it should switch to another line of business.
There is already some controversy surrounding Lynas’ application for a licence from the Atomic Energy Licensing Board. We don’t need more controversies here.
Malaysians also don’t need a rare earth plant that its home country won’t accept. Thank you very much.
AMIR HUSSEIN,
Kuala Lumpur.

Source: The Star - April 15, 2011

Of Keep Warm And Cold-Storaged Blankets

Vox populi: An anti-government protestor, center, reacts during a demonstration demanding the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday. Dozens of chiefs from Yemen's two largest and most powerful tribes called on the president to immediately step down and strip his son of control over security forces, as rival crowds of protesters took to the streets Friday. (AP/Muhammed Muheisen)

Prayers for Arrigoni: Palestinian women hold a banner with the picture of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni during a protest in the West Bank city of Nablus, Saturday. (AP/Nasser Ishtayeh)

Earth Day: Students attach cut-out paper leaves on a mock tree made of cardboard during their campaign to protect the environment as part of the celebration of Earth Day, Saturday, April 16, 2011 in suburban Quezon City, north of Manila, Philippines. The students called on to stop commercial logging and mining. (AP Photo/Pat Roque)

 

Returning blankets: Yukari Abe, left, and her father Kazushige Hayashi return donated blankets to an evacuation center since they move out to another shelter set up at a local inn in Fukushima, northeastern Japan, Saturday. Abe said the inn prepares bedding for them. She also hopes to have more privacy at the new shelter. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae) 

Source: The Jakarta Post - Sunday, April 17, 2011

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'Corruption' Blights The Lives Of Flood-Hit Pakistanis

 

Many people say that they have been defrauded by the authorities

Millions of people in Pakistan are facing winter without proper shelter because their homes were destroyed by the recent devastating floods. Some accuse officials of mismanaging the crisis - a claim the government denies. Jill McGivering reports from southern Punjab, one of the worst affected regions.

I came across the blanket distribution late in the afternoon near the road, on the outskirts of Kot Addu. As soon I got out of the car, people surrounded me.
It's all unfair, they shouted. Officials are not giving blankets to people who need them. They are giving them to friends and supporters.
A woman in a white burka pushed forwards.
"I'm very poor," she said. "My house has been destroyed. I don't even have a tent. It's cold at night, winter is coming and the children are starting to become ill."
She had come here for help, she said, but no-one would give her anything.
'Raining corruption' One man spoke English. He had come along to support his neighbour, he said.

 

Many people are unable to get even basic medical treatment

"They've been standing here since nine in the morning," he told me. "Now it's five o'clock and they're still waiting."
"Look at her," he said. "She's pushed around by everyone and in the end she'll go home with nothing."
I headed for the brick building with the blankets, hoping to put these complaints to the officials inside.
The angry crowd moved with me. By the time I managed to enter the room where the blankets were stacked, the official had gone.
I was told that he had taken advantage of the chaos and slipped out of the back door.
I came away not knowing if the crowd's allegations were justified.
But as I travelled around the blasted landscape of southern Punjab, I was certainly struck by the mood of public frustration and repeated allegations of corruption that have been directed at the government.
It is not only about blankets.
The government is now rolling out a nationwide cash compensation scheme for flood victims. Families can apply for a special bank card and use it to withdraw compensation from cash points at local banks. But this too is proving controversial.
I visited a rich, landowning family in the area. About 40 men had come to beg for help. They said they were not getting the cash compensation they had been promised.
"Corruption, corruption, corruption," shouted one burly man. "It's raining corruption!"
Fury He showed me mini-statements from the bank.

 

The fear is that conditions will get worse as winter approaches

The first instalment of compensation had been credited to his account - but just days later, the whole sum had been withdrawn. Not by him, he insisted.
Other men shouted the same allegation, blaming government officials and the bank staff for defrauding them.
In Islamabad, I put the allegations to the Interior Minister, Rehman Malik.
It was not possible for government officials to defraud the cash compensation scheme, he said.
Thirty-eight thousand cases of fraud had already been registered, he said, but they all involved members of the public.
"This is dishonesty on the part of the people - their own friends, family members and people from their own area," he said.
"People here are very simple," he said. "They only understand the language when they get the cash. If the cash is delayed, then they'll blame the government."
I told him about the chaos at the blanket distribution and the old lady who repeatedly came away with nothing. Mr Malik said this too was the result of public fraud, not official corruption.
He related a personal experience in the field. "I spotted women coming, taking goods, like blankets, going and stuffing them somewhere and then coming back for more," he said.
"Generally some people may not get them. But other people get them five or six times and then sell them."
Winter is approaching and there is no doubt that people who have lost their homes and crops are full of fury, much of it directed at officials.
Fair or not, that's doing little to help the government's credibility here.
To listen to Jill McGivering's documentary, click here. You can also download this programme as a podcast.


Source: BBC. Co. UK - November 25, 2010

Picking Up The Pieces

A Chinese farmer, who was wrongly jailed for 11 years for murder he did not commit, has been acquitted after the victim 'came back to life'.

Zhao Zuohai, 57, was recently released from prison after the man he was convicted of killing more than a decade ago reappeared in their home village alive on April 30. The Henan Higher People's Court in China declared Zhao Zuohai, innocent on Saturday after confirming Zhenshang's identity on Friday, May 7.

A press conference was held on Sunday - The court official said Zuohai was declared innocent, released from the prison and helped him settled down.

After being tortured into confessing to the murder of a man who is not even dead, he has been given 650,000 yuan (US$96,000) in government compensation, state media reported on Thursday. He is now asking for more compensation.
Zhao Zuohai, 57, has asked for another 650,000 yuan in compensation after he received the same amount last Thursday morning from judicial officials in Shangqiu City in central Henan province, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

He said the money awarded to him earlier was not enough to cover his losses - Spending 11 years behind bars and returning home to find his wife remarried and his children adopted by other families.
After he went to prison, Zhao's wife remarried and two of his children were adopted by her new husband. The other two children left home to work as migrant labourers.

Zhao Zuohai showing the cheque with the compensation money (Photo: China News Service)

Family members said Zhao agreed to the initial compensation because court officials knocked on his door at midnight and persuaded him to sign documents without clarifying certain details.The next day, Zhao regretted signing the papers because he considered the amount "too little", they said.

Yuan Hegang, spokesman for the Henan Higher People's Court said the compensation was in line with the State Compensation Law including 450,000 yuan for wrongful jail for 4,019 days, and 200,000 yuan as allowances to support Zhao’s future.

Wang Jianmin, Party chief of the political and legislative affairs committee of Shangqiu city, shaking hands with Zhao Zuohai.

 "It was better to be dead than alive," he told Beijing News.

******

After his release, Zhao said he had been forced to confess to murder, beaten at the head with a long stick, asked to drink something that made him really sleepy and set off fireworks above his head. He was tortured during the interrogation until he confessed to the crime.
Police made him stay awake for days.

Zhao's ex-wife said she was tortured by the police for about a month in 1999 when the headless body was found. The police kept asking her if she knew Zhao Zuohai killed the man.
She was beaten up when admitted she did have any knowledge about it.

The incident has raised concerns about torture, which is believed to be widely used by Chinese police in criminal cases. China has taken gradual steps to address particular instances of torture.

The local police, court officials and prosecuting authorities are investigating the case and have promised to penalise those responsible for the wrong conviction.
2 police officers have been detained on suspicion of torturing Zhao to get him to confess and a third one is at large.
3 judges who were in charge of Zhao's case, have been suspended and are being investigated.

Last year, Beijing pledged to clamp down on inmate abuse, and nearly 1,800 policemen were suspended, according to a report released on the Ministry of Public Security website.
China has also released guidelines that identify specific acts of torture for which police can be prosecuted in an apparent attempt to reign in such abuses.

******

In 1997, both Zhao Zuohai and Zhao Zhenshang had a fight at their hometown in Shangqiu. Zhenshang went missing after the fight.
After 4 months, his nephew lodged a police report suspecting his uncle had been killed by Zuohai.
Zuohai was detained to assist investigations but released 20 days later.

******

A probe into the false murder charge has been launched, China media reported.

In 1999, Zuohai was convicted of murdering his neighbour after a highly-decomposed headless body believed to be Zhao Zhenshang was found.

He was sentenced to death with a 2-year reprieve by the Intermediate People's Court in Shangqiu in 2002.

 ******

After being missing for 13 years, Zhenshang, 58, returned home on April 30 this year.

Police have returned to the well where the headless body was found and began their probe to re-establish the man's identity.

******

Worrying of having killed Zuohai the farmer, Zhensheng, a petty trader, told the villagers that he ran away after injuring Zuohai in the fight 13 years ago in the wee hours on his bicycle, with only 400 yuan and a quilt.
He did not know anything that happened to Zuohai until after he went back.

He said he decided to return home after suffering from a minor hemiplegia (paralysis of one side of the body).