'What's next, phone bills? Credit card statements? Such details, unless obtained via a court order, should be private.'

Rep sees red over Guan Eng's water bill expose

Anonymous: Whatever Umno's Shabuddin Yahaya has done to deserve this, I feel that Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has crossed the line by exposing private information of individuals, no matter how good the intention was to prove a point. Such details, unless obtained via a court order, should be private.

For now, it is the water bill. What's next, phone bills? Credit card statements? I think LGE (Lim Guan Eng) is a good guy but a mistake is a mistake. LGE should apologise for exposing the Umno representative's water bills. Proper channels should be used.

Anonymous_1d56: I think what the CM LGE did was ethically and morally wrong. As Penang Water Board chairperson, he should not have made public private water bills. Does that mean if he is the finance minister, he can make public bank accounts or income tax statements of anybody he chose to demonise?

Blackknight: What's so ethically and morally wrong with that? The subject is about water bill and therefore LGE refers to the complainant's water bill.

Not long ago, the subject of high bonuses and salaries by Wall Street barons (robbers) was brought up while the companies they headed were bleeding. Of course, US President Barack Obama had to expose their salaries (which is really a private and confidential matter) to get to the core of the problem.

Shabuddin raised the matter of the water tariffs so LGE had every right to use all avenues to refute Shabuddin's point of contention. If you (Shabuddin) think the matter of your water usage is such a sensitive matter, then don't play hero.

T Sundram: Lim should answer Shabuddin's query, not just ignore him simply because he is an Umno member. A valid query has be raised, and if you are transparent in handling matters, you should answer this and not sweep it under the carpet.

Disgusted: Try getting your water from Syabas, Splash, etc, who control water in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor - you'll probably pay 50 percent more for heavy usage of water. At least Penangites are paying less than KL-ites despite having no direct water source of their own as Selangor does.

Umnoputras will never be satisfied with whatever Lim and the Penang government do, because they have no chance to make any corrupt money as their gravy train had dried up.

Hann Wei Toh: A domestic user using 35 cubic metres of water a month is unthinkable. How on earth can a household consume that much water? If it is a huge residential property with eight to 10 people, then it may be okay.

I wonder what Shabuddin's concern is. Frankly, even Johor's water tariff (one of the highest in Malaysia) is very affordable. The tariff is designed to punish those who waste water.

I am not sure if my bill has ever exceeded the minimum amount all these years, although I have not exactly tried hard to conserve water, as I water my lawn and use the washing machine several times a week (I consume six cubic metres in average per month).

Rep wants Utusan barred from Penang assembly

Isa@1penyu: Just because Utusan Malaysia is linked to government, it is deemed wrong. This is DAP politics. DAP has fanned anti-police and anti-Election Commission in its party organ Rocket, yet it is not banned.

Now you talk about banning Utusan? So much for freedom of expression speech. Why don't DAP ban Internet bloggers (from reporting on state legislature) as well, as they started all this. Whether true or not, let the police investigate. Why get so defensive all of a sudden?

Yohannes: I am a Christian and I am disturbed by the attacks on Christianity lately. But in this instance, I do agree that as a matter of principle, Penang should not ban Utusan. All newspapers should be allowed. Repeal the PPPA (Printing Presses and Publications Act). Free speech for all Malaysians.

Anonymous123: Does freedom of speech means one can slander and incite racial unrest? Tell me which country in the world allows that, except here in Bolehland?

KLeo: DAP representative Jagdeep Singh Deo doesn't know what he's asking for. Don't scream for freedom of speech and for a free media when you're so quick to call for the clamping down and shutting out of a dissenting news organisation (even one so vile and despicably racist as Utusan Malaysia).

The whole point of freedom of speech is for all views to be heard so that a discerning Malaysia can make up its mind. Have more faith in Malaysians.

Anonymous_5fb: Let Utusan write what they want. I believe the rakyat have the intelligence to know 'how true' their writings and reports are.

Utusan has gone extreme in its unethical reporting, and apparently the authorities are not going to take action against the newspaper since it is owned by Umno. These actions and inactions will backfire on themselves. The more extreme, ultra and unethical, the more adverse the impact will be.

So, let's not bar Utusan from covering the proceedings of Penang state assembly. Umno's greed, arrogance, ignorance and illusion have exceeding tolerable limit. If they don't 'insaf', they are in fact 'sangat bodoh'.

Anonymous_5fb: Don't underestimate the intelligent of Malay rural folks. They can be more intelligent than city folks. And if they are of lesser intelligent than the city folks, at least they are better Muslims.

Furthermore, do we have the statistics of how many of them read Utusan daily? With prices of basic food stuffs keep increasing, who has the extra money to buy Utusan?

20121221Disaster: The problem is too many Malay folks are reading only Utusan and their minds are already been poisoned by their twisted and fitnah-filled articles. Malay folks never go to other media for news, hence are uncritically accept all the false news from Utusan.

If these readers knew that the contents of the newspaper are mostly distorted news, they would had switched to other papers a long time ago and Utusan should be bankrupt by now.

Docs: I agree with Jagdeep Singh that Utusan should be barred from covering Pakatan Rakyat state events on the basis that:

1) They are fanning religious hatred.
2) False information is being portrayed on opposition activities.
3) It paints opposition politicians in bad light.

Dingy: The fact that Utusan had made headline of the issue of the Christian state on its front page based on accusations by some bloggers suggests that the paper is irresponsible. What was the motive for doing this? You don't make headline of rumours until it is confirmed.

Any person can put up something malicious to create racial riot. If Utusan reports a mischievous blogger's report and home minister doesn't giving a warning, then this country is going to the dogs.

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