Bottled cooking oil – subsidised by the government but sold outside the country
As soon as the government announced the removal of cooking oil subsidy for all types of cooking oil except those in the 1kg packs, all hell broke loose. Housewives got into the panic buying mode while unscrupulous traders went on a cooking oil hoarding campaign. Any store you go to you would either be allowed to buy just one or skg of cooking oil and nothing more. Some stores have even ‘run out‘ of cooking oil.
But have they really run out of cooking oil?
Every day now we would get news of stores, vacant houses being raided and tonnes of cooking oil discovered by the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism officers. It is obvious that store owners are hoarding to profit from the increase in cooking oil prices. That is causing the ‘shortage’ we are seeing now.
So, why remove cooking oil subsidy?
Every month, the government subsidises 23 cooking oil producers to produce 85,000 tonnes of cooking oil per month. Studies show that Malaysians only use 45,000 tonnes of cooking oil per month. Approximately 40,000 tonnes are accounted for and are believed to have been smuggled to other countries. These producers/companise that smuggle out these cooking oil double their profits through the subsidies received from the government, and also for selling the oil at a higher price abroad!
It is the bottled type of cooking oil that have been found to be smuggled abroad because they have better mobility than those in the 1kg packets. 1kg packet-cooking oil are used mainly by those from the lower income bracket. This is why the government is maintaining subsidies only for the 1kg packets while the bottled ones have theirs removed. This way, the subsidy reaches the intended group, while the subsidies removed from bottled cooking oil could be put to better use to assist those in need through some other means.
I am all for the removal of subsidy and the chanelling of subsidies removed to address the needs of the lower and lower-middle income groups. Why should I complain about it? The 5kg bottled oil that will cost me RM15.25 this month can last my 10-member household three weeks. So that comes to about 71 sen per day! You people spend more on cigarettes yet you complain about cooking oil!
Black Maria grinning silly lying through her gums
She said this after a DC Leaks exposé that links BERSIH to funds from George Soros’s OSF.
George Soros has since lamely denied that he was funding the overthrowing of governments.
It is difficult for me to believe that such an internationally-renowned organisation such as BERSIH that claims to have the support of at least 250,000 zombies that turned up at each rally that believe in its struggle cannot raise funds from them.
If BERSIH was to ask for just RM50 from each of those 250,000 in a show of solidarity and support, BERSIH would have collected RM12.5 million for each rally organised. That equals to 694,445 Venti-sized drinks at a Starbucks where Maria and her fellow organisers could have while watching rally participants get bludgeoned by the Federal Reserve Unit through Facebook Live.
The fact that Maria admits having a tough time raising funds to finance her coup d’etat attempts shows that she does not have the support of the majority of Malaysians.
The Royal Malaysian Navy has announced the procurement of up to four vessels from China for its Littoral Mission Ships programme. The Type 056 corvettes virtually matches the requirements of the RMN (image by Wikipedia)The dust has yet to settle. Pro-US tweethandles have been lambasting Malaysia for its ‘shift’ in trade approach – a whopping RM143.64 billion (USD34.4 billion) worth of MoUs have been signed between the two countries that includes what Prime Minister Najib Razak termed as ‘a landmark deal’ – the purchase of four vessels from China to fulfill the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN)’s ‘Littoral Mission Ship (LMS)’ programme. It is a ‘landmark’ deal because it is a departure from the usual military purchases from Western manufacturers.
However, shift it is not. Between January and August of 2016 Malaysian exports totalled RM500.33 billion (USD119.72 billion) with China being the second largest buyer of Malaysian products at RM58.93 billion (USD14.10 billion) surpassing the US by RM6.51 billion (USD 1.56 billion). In the same corresponding period for 2015, China imported RM18.52 billion (USD4.43 billion) more than the US. Malaysia has been trading with China since 1974.
Given the requirements of the RMN, the platform that would be most suitable for the LMS programme is the Type 056 Corvette. The RMN had embarked on several programmes such as the Kedah-class NGPV and the Samudera-class Training vessels with local yards being the preference. In both programmes, the local yards had failed to manage the projects efficiently and effectively causing delays the RMN could not afford. Extra funds had to be pumped in in order to complete the projects.
The ‘KD Perak’, first of the Kedah-class NGPVs to be constructed locally was laid down in March of 2002 and was launched on the 12th November 2007, more than five years compared to less than 18 months for the first two that were constructed at Blohm & Voss as well as the HDW yards. She was only commissioned on the 3rd June 2009, seven years and three months after being laid down! In the end, due to the rising cost to complete the vessels that had been laid down, only six of the Kedah-class was built out of the 27 planned. This had left the RMN barely able to patrol Malaysian waters as almost all the 40-year old patrol crafts had been taken out of service.
The Samudera-class programme in 2011 called for two training ships namely the Gagah Samudera and the Teguh Samudera to be constructed at a local yard in Sijangkang, Selangor. Due to a mismanagement of the programme the yard was unable to complete both vessels although both had been launched in 2012 and had to fold up when a creditor took them to court in 2013. In late 2015, funds were made available only for the Gagah Samudera and a yard in Lumut was selected to complete her fitting out. As of October 2016, she is still undergoing her testing phase. The fate of the Teguh Samudera is still not known.
The Chinese option gives the RMN the edge of procuring proven modern vessels that are common-of-the-shelf (COTS) for a lot less. This augurs well with the RMN as her assets are being stretched thin, with combat boats such as the CB90 doing crew change and supply runs to the various RMN stations located in the Spratlys. Two years ago last month one CB90 went missing for more than a day in rough seas. With the LMS coming online, these tasks could be handed over to these more capable vessels.
Despite being known as a strong ally of the US, the Royal Thai Navy has been using Chinese-made vessels since the mid 1990s when the first two frigates, HTMS Naresuan and HTMS Taksin were commissioned in 1995. Newer and more modern vessels such as the HTMS Pattani and HTMS Narathiwat were commissioned between 2005 and 2007.
Royal Thai Navy’s OPV HTMS NarathiwatBring COTS model the Type 056 corvette can be obtained quickly as compared to its American contemporary, the Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ship (LSC). The Type 056 corvette began production in 2012. To date People’s Liberation Army – Navy (PLAN-N) have commissioned its 25th vessel compared to three of the Freedom-class vessels which began production in 2005. With automation being the key feature of the Type 056, a single unit requires only up to 60 officers and men to operate with a mission endurance of about 21 days compared to the Freedom-class that requires 115 men with the same endurance. This will definitely reduce RMN’s cost of operating each LMS.
The purchase of the China-made vessels also fits into the RMN’s ’15-to-5′ armada transformation programme which aims at reducing the current fifteen classes of vessels built in seven countries to just five – the Littoral Combat Ships (LCS); New Generation Patrol Vessels (NGPV); Littoral Mission Ships (LMS); Multi-Support Ships (MRSS) and submarines.
The move offers the RMN a broader spectrum to choose from for platforms that are fit for purpose based on mission capabilities and the RMN doctrine. This would make the armada more cost-effective to manage and maintain. We have the leadership of the RMN to thank for finally taking the step to transform the organisation into a lean and mean fighting force.
Mahathir named Soros as the person behind the currency attacks of 1997-98
“It was a well-coordinated efforts to destabilise Asean currencies for self-serving purposes,” said a joint-comunique by ASEAN Foreign Ministers in 1997 on the serious attacks by George Soros and his Open Society Institute on ASEAN currencies. Pribumi founder, Mahathir, who was the Prime Minister then said Soros was using the wealth under his control to punish Asean for welcoming Burma. “There is definite evidence that we cannot disclose,” he said. “There is no doubt he did it.”
Yesterday, minutes of meeting that happened on the 22nd June 2015 between Soros’s Open Society Foundation with local opposition-leaning organisations such as but not limited to the likes of the Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research was made available by DC Leaks, the same organisation that exposed Hillary Clinton’s e-mails scandal.
Plans have been made to mobilise what has been named as the ‘Malaysia Programme – Portfolio Review Outcome Summary‘ to influence domestic politics in anticipation of the 14th General Elections that is expected to be held by May of 2018. The programme includes:
Greater mobilisation of the Muslim population as current involvement is not satisfactory.
Greater mobilisation of minority groups, women, Orang Asli and rural youth.
Engage with Election Commission, explore any possibility of policy reform, and identify clear policy targets.
Begin the process of leveraging the programmes’ existing networks in the country from this year onwards.
Develop a strong post-election mechanism to ensure documentation of any dispute can be quickly presented, unlike the 2013 election.
Other revelations:
OSF monitors and attempts to chart domestic politics since 2010, shortly after Datuk Seri Najib Razak assumed the office of prime minister.
The foundation had engaged in lobbying or “advocacy” in the US to shore up support for its efforts in Malaysia.
The most successful initiative was making “grants” or providing funds for friendly groups working for a common cause.
Following negative media exposure of Soros, the programme has proceeded in secret, with staff working quietly to minimise public exposure.
MalaysiaKini and its online broadcast service KiniTV received special allocations for election reporting, with ongoing support outside the election season.
The three pages of the minutes that were leaked by DC Leaks
Merdeka Centre’s Ibrahim Suffian admitted that he was among the attendees along with OSF’s President, Christopher Stone. OSF has been providing “grants” to “local networks” and while no NGO was named, Mahathir-friendly BERSIH’s recently-arrested Chairman Maria Chin admitted to having received such grant.
The OSF does not only meddle in Malaysia but encourages “coloured” protests in Asia (where in Malaysia it is YELLOW) and also seeks to influence elections in the European Union. So, how can BERSIH be a free and fair movement when it is actually doing the bidding for a foreign megalomaniac?
It is odd but hardly surprising that Mahathir, who just last year said that street rallies were not the way to get what was desired and that this should be seen as a last resort, has announced that he has his own BERSIH 5 t-shirt and will be attending the rally. Mahathir, after all, is now shedding his Malay skin. The survival of the Malays and the cohesion of the multiracial society is no longer of any significance to him. All that matters is for him to fulfill his personal agenda and interests whatever it is that those may be. For that he is willing to work with his sworn enemies such as Lim Kit Siang, Mohammad Sabu, Anwar Ibrahim.
He even made friends with Malaysian-enemy-numero-uno George Soros himself! He buried the hatchet used to attack Soros even back in December 2006 saying, “You (Soros) personally are not involved but the devaluation was done by other traders and I accept that you are not involved.”
So was he wrong about Soros? Were all those suicides, broken marriages, depression caused by loss of income and closure of businesses back in 1997-98 not the result of Soros’s attacks on Asian currencies? Mahathir was cocksure it was Soros who did it! If he was wrong then, what else could he be wrong about?
Being funded by a megalomaniac to influence the outcome of elections is not a democratic process. Working for foreigners to form a government that kowtows to them is nothing short of treason. Societies will be destroyed, the spirit of our independence diluted, the way of life as we know it will no longer be there. Races will be pitted against one another. Resentment will grow to biblical proportions. Blood will be spilt and lives will be lost.
In the end, foreign troops will walk all over us.
Therefore in my book, both BERSIH and Mahathir are traitors.
Just as how one Kutty brought down the Melaka empire by opening the gates to foreign soldiers 505 years ago.
Mad rush for water at USJ4, Subang JayaToday is DAY SIX that taps have run dry for about 360,000 account holders or 1.6 million residents in the most developed state of Selangor. DAP supporters have gone quiet in residents’ WhatsApp groups while those who will be celebrating Deepavali are screaming for vengeance. Some are already asking “Mana Hannah Yeoh?” while Azmin Ali who, under his tutelage Selangor has seen the most of water disruptions, has reneged on the usual promise of announcing the biggest exposé on those he blamed this current water crisis on.
The MP for Kelana Jaya, Wong Chen, has since appeared on WhatsApp groups trying to appease voters. The following is his message:
Message from MP Wong Chen this morning 27 Oct.
Good morning from Parliament. We have been sitting the last few days up to 9.30 pm every night. The budget session is the most important session of the year but this year the government slashed some 8 days of sitting and as such we are forced to go beyond our 5.30 pm sitting by four extra hours a day to 9.30 pm every day.
This morning I want to talk about the water crisis affecting 1 million residents in Selangor. I have been following closely the water crisis in Selangor, affecting a large part of my constituents in Subang Jaya. YB Hannah Yeoh has been updatingregularly, she is on the ground distributing water and engaging residents. Residents are going into their 5th day without water. And we had a water crisis barely a month before.
In Parliament, I bumped into Minister Wan Junaidi and also separately the Deputy Minister Hamim on several occassions. I keep asking for their quicker action. They keep saying that Selangor must also do their bit. I have also relayed some of my ideas to YB Zuraida to pass on to the MB.
Wan Junaidi do not believe the current pollution crisis to be an act of deliberate political sabotage. Deputy Minister Hamim, who is an engineer and someoneI enjoyed working with on the TPPA (when he was Deputy Minister of MITI), will not speculate but says that the problem is not new. The federal government has resources but water is a state matter.
I am of the view that with the economy slowing, more and more companies will try to cut costs by dumping pollution straight into the river.
Enforcement in Malaysia has always been a challenge. A widely held view is theenforcement officers are either stretched thin, overworked or at the other end of the spectrum, just plain corrupt being paid by polluters to turn a blind eye.
If enforcement officers are not effective then we have to bring in the accountants.
The obvious solution is to track historical records of industrial waste output of each factory and counter check with their disposal costs. If a factory is found to have slashed spending substantially on disposal of industrial waste in the last year, then we can assume that they are engaging in illegal dumping. A major discrepency in the accounts should be a basis for a full investigation and raid by enforcement officers.
The state should also set up a benchmark of waste output for each industry to red flag any unusual data volatility. Setting up patrol units along the rivers is not going to help as much as sending in the accountants.
Bottomline is this. If the economy deteriorates, we can expect more and more water cuts stemming from increased pollution activity.
Irate residents will not listen to excuses or causes. Understandably, they just want water and they want this crisis to not repeat. As such Selangor must dramatically improve its emergency water delivery system. We needmore water tanks and we need delivery to be on schedule and to be regular.
We need to also beef up security monitoring at our rivers. We need night time road blocks to monitor all suspicious trucking activities. More importantly is we need new people to lead such enforcement. A fresh start with new officers.
We need to bring in the accountants. We need all factories in Selangor to disclose their waste inventory. And we need to catch the culprits, severely punish them to end this cycle of water cuts.
Lastly, I beg the residents to also empathise with the authorities. You will not find a harder working ADUN in Malaysia than YB Hannah Yeoh. If you see her on your streets at midnight distributing water, give her a pat on the back.
Wong Chen may be the sanest of the PKR lot probably due to being an idealist more than a politician. But he is saying nothing new, not a lot, and has nothing much to offer.
Firstly, it is obvious that as an MP he is not aware that all matters pertaining to land and water belongs to the respective states. Had he known this he would not have approached Wan Junaidi or his deputy Hamim.
As advised by industry players as early as 2011, the Selangor State government should gazette water catchment areas and implement the Langat2 Water Treatment Plant project. The State government did not do the first and delayed the second suggestion until it was too late.
Even in the 1990s when the economy was vibrant and our growth rate exceeded eight percent, business owners were dumping industrial scheduled wastes into rivers. It has nothing to do with our economy. It has all to do with our mentality and screw-all attitude.
Enforcement is lacking, no doubt, but stretched thin is the more than likely case. They can’t all be corrupted just as not all bungalows without swimming pools are cheap. So we just do not have the numbers needed to police based on a personnel to area ratio. And it doesn’t help when motormouth Tony Pua wants to trim down the civil service if he comes into power!
Even tracking of industrial waste output needs the manpower to do it. You can’t just sit in the office, tap on some keys and expect the numbers on the screen to tally with what is being produced in the real world.
Security monitoring of our rivers would go back to two things: manpower and gazetting water catchment areas! Why is there a need to repeat this over and over again? Everything points back to those two!
Hannah Yeoh the hardest working ADUN in Malaysia? I have seen better-working ones even from the DAP back in the 1970s. Distributing bottled water can be sub-contracted out to Bangladeshi workers. A hardworking ADUN would be screaming in the Dewan for more manpower to enforce gazetted water catchment areas. Not seek political mileage and benefitting from the misery of others!
There is a huge possibility that the culprit of the tragedy is electrical fire. In a previous article I discovered that out of the five fire incidents prior to the tragedy, three were electrical fires, the last incident bekng on the 15th October 2016. What I discovered next is alarming:
A Harian Metro headline of a scoop that was first exposed by TV9’s daring and no-nonsense senior broadcast journalist Zulhazri Abu Bakar
We wonder if fire prevention and electrical safety audits took place at the Hospital Sultanah Aminah (HSA) at all. The Minister of Health, in a briefing to the members of the Dewan Rakyat assured us that it has been done.
Impressive! Electrical maintenance is being done every quarter, half yearly and annually.
But look at how messy the wiring is, and this photo was taken after the second electrical fire incident that occurred in the Operating Theatre on the First Level. Let us take a closer look:
The above does not resemble The quality of electrical work done by a person certified by the Energy Commission to carry out such works. And by the look of it, this has definitely gone through several annual electrical inspection and maintenance schedules but obviously no corrective action has been taken. My question is, were the scheduled audits and maintenance mere paper exercises? Or in the words of safety practitioners – tick the boxes exercise?
According to the JBPM statistics collected between 1990 and 2002, electrical fire is the largest contributor of fire incidents. Regulation 67 of the Electricity Supply (Regulation) Act, 1990 requires a minimum of one inspection per month by a competent person of electrical installations not exceeding 600 Volts!
For larger voltage installations it is obvious that the frequency has to be increased! All these regulations are in place to provide the guidelines for building owners to perform routine inspections and maintenance to minimise incidents of electrical fires!
Obviously the concessionaire tasked with ensuring that everything is in good order, Medivest Sdn Bhd (formerly known as both Tongkah Medivest and then Pantai Medivest) had not done its job as required! The Energy Commission’s Regional Director Idris Jamaludin was spotted heading a nine-men team of electrical and gas experts into the HSA and we anxiously await their findings.
The Minister continues:
The HSA had requested last month for a fire drill to be conducted. This request I was told, was turned down by the Fire and Rescue Services Department (JBPM) because the HSA was not equipped with a fire-fighting systems control panel and nor were there the respective floor plans included in its fire safety plan!
How could fire drills be conducted if the fire safety plan is not complete? Which begs a question from me – when was the last Fire Certificate issued to the HSA?
Word has it that between 2014 and 2016, no fire and evacuation drill nor fire-fighting training was ever conducted. The last drill and training that was recorded was in 2009! Therefore it is safe to say that the last Fire Certificate was obtained then! How is it possible that Medivest Sdn Bhd, a company that was given the 30-year concession to maintain the operational safety of our hospitals be allowed to do things against whatever safety laws and regulations that are there to protect lives and government properties? Are they not suppose to conduct at least one training per annum as briefed to the Dewan by the Minister?
This is by no means a witch hunt. This is borne out of frustration and the utter disbelief that such complacency and incompetence are allowed to flourishby especially the state health department and the top management of Medivest Sdn Bhd.
Lives have been lost! Dozens more affected by their loss and injury! Millions of Ringgits worth of government properties have been lost because some people do not do their job as expected!
Hari ini Shafie Apdal, Ahli Parlimen Semporna telah membuat pembohongan di Parlimen. Di antaranya ialah:
1) Shafie mendakwa 60% daripada Bandar Malaysia telah dijual kepada China.
Ini tidak benar. 60% daripada Bandar Malaysia telah dijual kepada 60% konsortium Iskandar Waterfront Holdings (IWH) dan 40% kumpulan China Railway.
Pegangan saham IWH ialah 40% Kumpulan Prasarana Rakyat Johor (KPRJ – Johor State Govt) dan 60% Sumber Kepercayaan (Tan Sri Dato ‘Lim Kang Hoo).
A. 40% 1MDB atau MOF Inc (sekiranya saham dipindahkan), 36% IWH dan 24% CREC. Oleh itu, pemilikan projek utama adalah 76% Malaysia dan 24% China.
2. Shafie mendakwa 1MDB sahaja menggunakan Arul Kanda dan tidak mewujudkan peluang pekerjaan manakala bail-out untuk Proton dan MAS menyelamatkan pekerjaan.
Pertama, tidak seperti Proton dan MAS, 1MDB tidak pernah diselamatkan oleh kerajaan.
Mungkin Shafie Apdal tidak pernah pergi ke Sendayan untuk melihat pangkalan udara baru sedang dibina atau 7 kemudahan tentera di seluruh negara yang sedang dibina sekarang dibiayai oleh 1MDB sebagai sebahagian daripada perjanjian pertukaran mereka dengan MINDEF?
Atau beribu-ribu pekerja di TRX sekarang ini yang sedang berusaha menyiapkannya atau puluhan ribu pekerjaan yang akan diwujudkan apabila TRX mula beroperasi, dalam suasana pelaburan asing telah diterima daripada Australia, Indonesia dan Hong Kong?
Ia sudah pasti bukan hanya Arul Kanda sahja bekerja di sana😃
3. Shafie mendakwa bahawa Sabah dan Sarawak adalah negeri-negeri yang paling miskin dan mereka sedang disalah urus😂
Sabah mencatatkan pertumbuhan gaji kedua tertinggi 37.5% dan Sarawak mencatatkan 26% pertumbuhan gaji sejak 2010 – berbanding dengan hanya 17.2% bagi Pulau Pinang dan 20.8% bagi Selangor.
Berasaskan pendapatan isi rumah, Sabah sekali lagi mencatat pertumbuhan pendapatan isi rumah kedua tertinggi 81.3% manakala Sarawak mencapai 57.8% – kedua-dua outreached Selangor dan Pulau Pinang.
Pada KDNK asas per kapita, Sarawak dan Sabah bukanlah negeri-negeri yang paling miskin. Sarawak sebenarnya negeri ke-4 terkaya dan mempunyai KDNK per kapita sebanyak RM44k – bersamaan dengan Pulau Pinang. Walaupun Sabah mencatatkan RM19,700 – lebih tinggi daripada Kedah dan Kelantan.
Kadar kemiskinan tegar di Sabah juga menurun daripada 19.2% pada tahun 2009 kepada hanya 3.9% pada tahun 2014.
Manakala di Sarawak, kadar kemiskinan tegar juga berkurangan daripada 5.3% kepada 0.6%.
Malah, Sabah mempunyai rizab negeri RM2.33 bilion pada 2014 – hampir dua kali ganda daripada Pulau Pinang manakala Sarawak mempunyai rizab sebanyak RM27 bilion pada tahun 2014 – atau kira-kira 8 kali lebih tinggi daripada Selangor.
Malah Sabah dan Sarawak telah menerima bantuan dan pembangunan yang lebih besar daripada Kerajaan Persekutuan sejak 2009.
Jadi, bagaimana Shafie Apdal mewajarkan bahawa Sabah dan Sarawak adalah negeri termiskin dan sedang disalah urus?
Hanya kerana Shafie mempunyai imuniti parlimen maka dengan sewenang – wenangnya bercakap berdasarkan fakta media tanpa fakta sebenar?😂
The ICU Ward on the 2nd floor of the HSA on fire. Six people lost their lives in the tragedyA fire broke out at the Intensive Care Unit on the Second Floor of the Sultanah Aminah Hospital in Johor Bahru on the morning of the 25th October 2016 that killed six patients and injured one hospital staff. It was said that the hospital staff was one of the nurses who refused to leave the doomed patients undergoing intensive care inside the ward. They had to be pulled away to safety. One of the dead was a man who had had a brain surgery two days earlier. Taking the patients off their life-support system to safety was definitely a Catch-22 situation for the hospital staff and this would be a tragedy they would carry with them for the rest of their lives. The Fire Forensics team of the Fire and Rescue Services Department will now have to secure the fire scene, protect the trace and transient evidences, identify fire patterns and try determine the cause of the fire.
A Board of Inquiry will be held and with all the evidences and statements from witnesses to be made available to them once the investigation has been completed, they would have to determine the root causes of the incident, what went wrong, why they went wrong, what barriers or control measures that have failed, and what barriers or control measures that were not adhered to.
This was not the first fire incident that has occured at the Hospital Sultanah Aminah (HSA). There had been at least five other incidents, three of which occured in the Intensive Care Unit ward itself. On the 30th July 2008, a fire broke out at the ICU ward where the latest tragedy had occured destroying properties inside the store room. Then on the 20th October 2009, a fire broke out at the Ground Floor of the Main Block at the Phase IV Development Site Office. In early January 2010 a fire broke out at the Southern ICU Ward. This was caused by a damaged electrical fuse. On the 17th April 2010, an overloaded power supply switch caused a fire inside the Main Block’s Air Handling Unit’s room. And finally I was told that about three weeks ago, sparks were spotted coming out from the panel inside the ICU ward where the latest incident took place.
Given that fire is not uncommon at the HSA, I am sure that the hospital does have a Fire Response Plan as prepared according to the Arahan Perkhidmatan 1986, Bab Lapan Peraturan Am. This Arahan Perkhidmatan would require the HSA to hold fire drills and fire-fighting training as well as the inspection by the Fire and Rescue Services Department of fire-fighting equipments AT LEAST ONCE A YEAR. I used to hold one each week for the Drilling Rigs under my charge, fortnightly on board the offshore support vessels and once a quarter for each of the Mass Rapid Transit project package.
The Fire Safety Policy of the HSA would also require for a Fire Safety Team (PAKKHSA) to be formed and a Fire Security Officer to be appointed. The Fire Security Officer would be tasked among others would be to conduct scheduled fire-fighting equipment inspections together with the entity that is responsible for the maintenance of these equipment – Pantai Medivest Sdn Bhd. Pantai Medivest I am sure would in turn appoint local contractors to sub-contract the inspection and maintenance works out.
My questions would be:
When was the last time a fire drill held?
When was the last time an evacuation drill held?
When was the last time the PAKKHSA underwent a fire-fighting training?
When was the last time hospital staff trained on how to handle portable fire-fighting equipment?
When was the last time that fire and fire fighting equipment inspections were conducted?
What were the findings made during the post-mortem of each of the drills and whether they had been addressed?
What measures were taken to ensure that the electrical sparks that appeared in the ICU ward three weeks ago do not recur?
Did Pantai Medivest physically verify the corrective actions taken to prevent the recurrence of the sparks?
When was the last time Pantai Medivest audited its contractors as part of its contractors anagement plan?
When was the last time that the State Health Department audited Pantai Medivest’s performance as well as its adherence to the HSA’s and MOHs fire safety policies?
The above would be the basic question that I would be asking but of course my questions would not limited to just those. The more we find out during the investigation the more questions that would be raised. My only hope is that a truly thorough investigation would be conducted especially that Pantai Medivest is the common denominator at all Government Hospitals in the country, and any weakness not identified would be another costly tragedy waiting to happen, and by learning nothing from this tragedy the six would have died in vain.
Semasa diumumkan atlet Olimpik dan Paralimpik yang menyerlah mendapat imbuhan dan elaun bulanan RM5,000 (pingat Emas), RM3,000 (pingat Perak) dan RM2,000 (pingat Gangsa) seorang maka ramai bekas tentera yang telah lama pencen menyuarakan rasa tidak puas hati seolah-olah dianaktirikan.
Ahli sukan sukar untuk mendapat pekerjaan tetap melainkan mereka diberi pekerjaan oleh negeri yang beliau wakili kerana sering perlu tidak bekerja untuk mewakili negeri atau negara.
Allahyarham Mokhtar Dahari sebagai contoh bekerja di Cold Storage sebelum menjadi seorang kerani di MARA dan kemudiannya di PKNS juga sebagai seorang kerani.
Mungkin seorang anggota berpangkat Pegawai Waran yang pencen sekitar tahun 1980an dan 1990an menerima kurang dari RM2,000 sebulan. Tetapi, berbanding dengan berapa kerat yang menerima elaun tersebut, ramai bekas tentera lupa yang kos perubatan mereka, isteri mereka serta anak yang masih ditanggung yang lahir semasa mereka masih di dalam perkhidmatan adalah ditanggung sepenuhnya oleh kerajaan dan jumlah bekas tentera yang berdaftar dengan Jabatan Hal Ehwal Veteran adalah sekitar 85,000 orang! Mungkin lebih.
Veteran tentera juga masih menikmati kemudahan pembelian dari kedai-kedai PERNAMA yang mana kebanyakan barangan dikecualikan dari cukai eksais, cukai kastam dan cukai jualan yang dapat membantu mengurangkan kos sara hidup, walaupun sudah lama menamatkan perkhidmatan.
Begitu juga dengan latihan-latihan serta kursus-kursus kemahiran yang diadakan secara percuma di PERHEBAT bagi membantu para veteran mendapat ilmu dalam bidang-bidang khusus di mana orang awam perlu membayar sekitar empat angka untuk mendapat sijil yang sama. Malah khairat kematian dan bantuan sara hidup bagi balu dan anak-anak veteran ATM yang telah meninggal dunia yang memenuhi kriteria juga diberikan oleh kerajaan dan setakat ini lebih 5,000 keluarga telah menerima kemudahan ini.
Itu hanya sebahagian dari keistimewaan yang diterima oleh bekas pegawai dan anggota Angkatan Tentera Malaysia dan jumlah yang tidak boleh dilihat dengan mata kasar ini melebihi jumlah yang diterima setiap bulan oleh para atlet tersebut. Apa yang perlu kita sebagai veteran tentera lakukan hanyalah untuk berusaha menambahkan pendapatan bulanan seperti orang lain yang tidak mendapat sebarang keistimewaan seperti kita.
Tak ada sesiapa pun yang paksa kita sertai perkhidmatan Angkatan Tentera Malaysia berdekad yang lalu. Kita yang telah membuat pilihan itu sendiri. Namun keistimewaan tetap diberikan kepada kita walaupun tiada sesiapa pun lagi yang masih dalam perkhidmatan yang mengenali kita.
There is no water in most parts of Selangor…again. And this is due to the Semenyih river being polluted…again. And The administratively-impotent Menteri Besar, Azmin Ali, has blamed everyone else but the weakness of his administration…again.
I cannot remember how many water cuts has it been since August but this time Azmin has taken the idiot-level a step up by blaming the Barisan Nasional.
Giving him the benefit of the doubt one can only blame the Pakatan-led Selangor government for its failure to gazette water catchment areas, continuing to allow industries to encroach river buffer zones despite having an enactment to enforce a ban, and failure to haul the culprits in previous episodes of water cuts to court. Barisan Nasional is not in charge of administering Selangor so start pointing your finger at yourself!
This is typical of Pakatan Haprak (Harapan + Rakyat). They shout out rhetorics about bringing prices down and only Lim Guan Eng gets a discount for his bungalow. Is Pakatan Haprak really concerned about the welfare of the rakyat? Are they even democratic as claimed? I doubt. The walkout done by them from the tabling of the budget session last Friday is a poignant reminder of that.
This edited photo of Pakatan Harapan leaders after the staged walkout has made its way around in the InternetBlaming provocation Azmin said that the budget delivered by Najib Razak did not address the fundamental issues. If the Pakatan leaders cannot stand mere provocation then how is it going to find the patience to even listen to the rakyat? I got blocked by the various Pakatan leaders on Twitter for asking a simple question that they have refused to answer! I am sure there are many more whom have been treated in the same manner by Pakatan leaders!
Walking out of Parliament like spoilt little girls isn’t the only thing that Pakatan Haprak MPs are famous for; they also did not attend Parliament to vote against the Peaceful Assembly Bill and the Prevention of Terrorism Bill that have now been enacted. Then, they label the laws passed as draconian and restrictive but what have they done to ensure that these Acts never got passed in the first place? At the hint of a struggle, they collapse like jelly.
And I am sure they had to suddenly squeeze those placards out from their rear orifice because they claim that the walkout was not planned.
You can read for yourselves the disappointment that the Pakatan Haprak is:
Is Azmin Ali interested in doing work as a Menteri Besar? No.
Is Pakatan Haprak interested in democracy? No.
They are only interested in using the rakyat‘s money to finance their campaign and lifestyle. And Pakatan Haprak will cling on to power so that they can continue this financed lifestyle while you and I will have to endure endless water cuts!
If Azmin Ali feels he is right about Barisan Nasional sabotaging the water supply, provide evidence to the police and arrest the culprits. Or shut up and continue to remain the screwed-up little girl he is!
SeaDemon Says 
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