Tag: Thailand

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Is Selangor No Longer Attractive Economically Or Is The State Government All Talk Cock?

  
It is a Ramadan and a bleak Syawal for the former workers of JVC Kenwood at Section 22 Shah Alam as the factory ceases its operations as reported by The Rakyat Post above.  I am sure the decision to cease operations must have been made much earlier than just a few months or a year ago as any plant closure affects production as well as support services.

Many were too quick to blame the Federal Government as according to them investments come under the purview of the Federal Government. Many however forget that investments in a state comes under the purview of the respective states’ economic development council or committee. 

Does the seemingly bleak economy (despite the A- rating by Fitch) have any role in the closure of the plant? Let us examine:

  
Now it seems that TASCO had come into a sales and purchase agreement with JVC Manufacturing Malaysia Sdm Bhd for the purchase of the said property in 2009. This is a year after Pakatan Rakyat took over the state from Barisan Nasional. Six years on, it seems as if the Selangor SEDC had done nothing to persuade JVC to maintain a plant in Selangor. Why so?

It is easy to put the blame on the Federal Government. However, JVC has been cutting back its workforce not just in Malaysia but worldwide.

“They told us that the factory operations were moving to Thailand,” said a worker.

It was reported last year that JVC had cut its workforce globally by 14% to just under 20,000 people and about 90% of production now took place mostly in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Checks on jobstreet.com have shown that JVC is still hiring staff for its Tampoi plant in Johor.

Similarly, a few metres away from the JVC plant, Ansell Malaysia Sdn Bhd’s operations have also ceased and its workers were retrenched yesterday. The Australian company made healthcare protective gear.

A worker on site said: “They are moving their operations to Melaka. They have already told us about this six months ago and compensation was also paid out.”

Therefore, we are seeing a move out of Selangor not just by JVC but also by other foreign companies as well, unless Melaka and Johor are not in Malaysia, or that these states are not affected by the “slowdown” in the Malaysian economy. 

Maybe it is the hard work that Johor’s and Melaka’s SEDC have put in to ensure that foreign companies do not divest, unlike Selangor’s that was not able to or did not talk to JVC when the sales and purchase agreement was made six years ago.

Maybe Selangor has lost the edge it once had when it was still governed by Barisan Nasional.

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Land of Vile

Malaysian authorities dig up mass graves along the Malaysian-Thai border, and the cartoon published by Nation News of Thailand (pic by Siakapkeli.my)
Malaysian authorities dig up mass graves along the Malaysian-Thai border near Wang Kelian, and the cartoon published by Nation News of Thailand (pic by Siakapkeli.my)

The Nation recently ran a cartoon that made fun of Malaysia in light of the recent discoveries of human-trafficking camps with mass graves of Rohingyas.  The cartoon was picked up by an AFP correspondent based in Malaysia, Parameswaran Ponnudurai., and was subsequently highlighted by The Malaysian Chronicle. It is all well and good for Thailand that the remains of the Rohingyas as well as the camps are mostly found on this side of the border, not that they do not have any, mind you. The Thais should also remember that while Malaysia and Indonesia have agreed to take in 7,000 of these refugees, Thais have adamantly refused to take in any.

So, shame on Thailand for closing an eye on the problems across its western border?  Wait for it.  There is another thing they ought to be ashamed of. In interviews carried by BERNAMA, the luckier Rohingyas spoke about the guards who tortured, raped and killed the rest.

Read from the link and see who they were and if there anything sinister about the Land of Smiles!

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TLDM Teruskan Operasi Mencari dan Menyelamat Pelarian Rohingya

Setelah menerima arahan Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Tentera Laut DiRaja Malaysia mengerahkan lima buah aset permukaannya untuk memberi bantuan kepada pelarian Rohingya serta melakukan operasi mencari dan menyelamat selebih pelarian Rohingya yang masih berada di laut dan belum ditemui.  Di dalam satu sidang akhbar yang telah diadakan petang tadi, Panglima Tentera Laut Laksamana Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Jaafar TLDM menegaskan bahawa kelima-lima aset tersebut yang terdiri dari KD Mahawangsa, KD Selangor, KD Laksamana Muhammad Amin KD Ledang dan KD Jerai telah diarahkan untuk memberi bantuan sewajarnya seperti yang telah diarahkan oleh Majlis Keselamatan Negara (MKN).

KD Jerai, kapal penyapu ranjau TLDM yang turut serta dalam misi bantuan kemanusiaan untuk pelarian Rohingya - gambar TLDM
KD Jerai, kapal penyapu ranjau TLDM yang turut serta dalam misi bantuan kemanusiaan untuk pelarian Rohingya – gambar TLDM
Krisis pelarian Rohingya telah menyaksikan kematian beratus jika bukan beribu pelarian akibat pelayaran yang mengambil masa lebih tiga minggu untuk tiba di perairan Thailand, Malaysia dan Indonesia.  Hanya Malaysia dan Indonesia sahaja yang telah memberi persetujuan untuk memberi perlindungan sementara kepada 7,000 orang pelarian, sementara Thailand akan menghentikan penundaan semula ke laut bot-bot yang membawa para pelarian tersebut.  Menteri Luar, Dato’ Sri Anifah Aman menegaskan para pelarian tersebut perlu dihantar pulang dan diberi penempatan tetap dalam masa setahun dengan bantuan kewangan daripada masyarakat antarabangsa.

Bagi TLDM dan kerajaan Malaysia, ini bukanlah julung kali ianya terlibat dalam misi bantuan kemanusiaan untuk kaum Rohingya.  Pada bulan September 2012, kerajaan telah menggunakan kapal KD Indera Sakti untuk menghantar sebanyak 480 tan barangan keperluan seperti makanan, ubat-ubatan serta keperluan harian lain melalui pelabuhan Sittwe, Myanmar.