Archive - 17 September 2003

After vigorously calling for the resignation of the EC chief for hiring Puteri Umno members as part-time staff, PAS makes an about turn today in the interest of a 'smooth election'.

Even as the Election Commission fine-tunes its code of election ethics and guidelines for enforcement, it already appears that persuasion - rather than penalties - will be the main force behind the process.

Standard and Poor's says it expects little appreciable policy risk from the transfer of power from Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to his deputy Abdullah Ahmad Badawi next month.

Challenges are often thrown across the floor in the Dewan Rakyat and are immediately ignored. Not today, when two members took their quarrel outside the House.

A week after Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad revealed he received a 'threatening' letter from the magazine, its managing editor pens an apology to the premier.

Opposition parliamentarians submit a memorandum to the Conference of Malay Rulers to step up pressure in calling for the resignation of the Election Commission chief Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman.

Opposition party DAP today expressed scepticism over a pledge that a decades-old ban on election rallies will be lifted ahead of the next vote, expected within a year.

PAS has mired itself in controversy last week by expressing support for suicide bombings. Today, its ally stresses that attacks on civilians must be condemned.

A sudden revision in water tariff had irate residents of a block of apartments in Selangor. They demand an explanation from water-management board Puas. Will the response they received apply to all high-rise dwellers eventually?

The Sarawak state government confirms that tycoon Syed Mokhtar Al-bukhary acquired a 60 percent stake in the RM9 billion Bakun hydroelectric dam project in the state.

The former Keadilan deputy president responds to the reactions to his criticism of ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim's pro-IMF prescriptions during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.

Keadilan Youth has been hit by resignations from exco posts, purportedly over policy differences following the merger with PRM. However, it remains business as usual for the wing.

The police have begun cracking down on illegal immigrants from Indonesia living in squatter camps ahead of a major Islamic summit meeting here next month.

Statistics Department say that for the first seven months of the year, manufacturing sales increased 9.7 percent to RM190.5 billion.

Sober reasoning will show that there were no winners - only losers - in the failed WTO talks in Cancun. Like other developing countries, Malaysia will have to compute its real losses.

Dalam bukunya, Chin Peng menceritakan bagaimana Parti Komunis Malaya (PKM) yang sebelumnya dilabel sebagai pengganas, diberi pujian dan anugerah, selepas bekerjasama dengan British menentang tentera Jepun sewaktu Perang Dunia Kedua, ulas LEE BAN CHEN.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad forsees poor, weak countries coming under "tremendous pressure" from rich nations following the collapse of the WTO talks in Cancun.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad says Muslims must catch up with Western development to "prevent Islam from being humiliated, looked down upon and regarded as a religion of terrorists".