Archive - 3 March 2003

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad will be o­n a two-month leave beginning Thursday till May 4.

The leadership issue between two feuding factions within NUBE turns violent as members dragged into camps start taking matters into their own hands.

The Youth wing of People's Progressive Party (PPP) - a component party of the ruling BN coalition - wants police chief Norian Mai to do something about the deaths in police lock-ups.

Despite their persistence in resisting an eviction order from their former employer, a group of ex-estate workers had their houses demolished again by the authorities. Their protest led to the arrest of 10 people, including a pregnant woman.

They lodged 101 police reports but are yet to see any progress. This has led a group of cattle farmers in Klang to charge that cops in the district are collaborating with a developer to evict them.

A senior United Nations official has deplored the criminalisation of free speech in a number of countries, including Malaysia, in a speech at an international journalist conference.

A police report has been lodged against the New Straits Times for publishing allegedly seditious articles that can cause hatred toward people of a certain faith in the country.

The Masing-Sng faction is said to be gaining ground ahead of an impending contest for the PBDS top posts at the coming party's triennial delegates conference.

MCA secretary-general Dr Ting Chew Peh says the dominant Chinese-based party has been in a difficult position within Malaysia's political reality, and now faces a bigger problem: selfish leaders who turn to outsiders for help.

Privately-owned Sistem Televisyen Malaysia (TV3) is in talks with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and another firm to dispose of its loss-making operations in Ghana.

Those calling for peace must be consistent in their stand. Those calling for war, apart from exposing their lack of calibre, must be incredibly naive to think the war will liberate Iraq.