Villagers shocked over PM’s power, water bills

Sabahans in Kota Belud were in disbelief when told of the prime minister's exorbitant household bills.

BELUD: Villagers here were somewhat aghast when told that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s household electricity bill was RM160,000 and water bill RM66,000 a month.

Kota Belud, which is less than an hour away from Kota Kinabalu, has many homes without clean water and electricity.

Perhaps more irking is the fact that Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) had just raised the electricity tariff in the state.

Even before the latest controversial tariff hike, electricity was more expensive here in Sabah than in the peninsula.

PKR vice-president Tian Chua, who told a shocked group here about Najib’s colossal bills, said: “It’s an insult to the people especially the ordinary people in Sabah and Sarawak.

“Najib’s monthly electricity bill runs into RM160,000, while his water is RM66,000 per month.

“Where is the credibility of the prime minister in calling the people to change their lifestyle in this hard time?

“His bills are outrageous, it is taxpayers’ money. They pay these bills.”

He told the audience in Tempasuk, near here recently, that these figures were revealed in Parliament but were unknown to residents in Sabah and Sarawak.

“The people of Sabah can imagine for themselves how much money is being spent to sustain the lifestyles of top Umno and Barisan Nasional leaders.

“All of them are being paid by the people and they a run into hundreds, perhaps thousands, ” he said.

Tian Chua, who was here to launch the Tempasuk PKR division, said PKR wanted to put a stop to this kind of wastage of public money, and hence it wanted a mandate from the people at the coming general election.

Cheating people

He said the elitist BN would continue to give Sabahans raw deals.

He added that in many instances, BN refused to give in to any of Sabah’s requests and often tried to force the people to accept what they don’t want.

He cited the proposed Tambatuon Dam in Tambatuon here where the BN wanted to “take money” from the people.

He said the BN appeared to “give” the dam to the people although the plan was rejected by Tambatuon.

“What the people here want is supply of clean water and stable electricity. Why can’t the BN give this if they have the money?

“Instead they spend people’s money at their whims and fancies without listening to the people’s views,” he said.

He also expressed shock that the majority of the kampungs here, which was close to Kota Kinabalu, did not have clean water.

Tian Chua said the botched coal-powered electricity plant in Sinakut, Lahad Datu, was another example of an expensive mistake by the scheming BN.

He said the compensation of more than RM70 million to consultants for the cancelled project could have been better spent on other more needy projects to alleviate the problems of many Sabah people, especially in Lahad Datu and in the east coast.

Taken from Free Malaysia Today

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Najib, Liow caught in a lie: Children demand explanation

Election promises made by the Barisan Nasional are often not kept, but for two siblings, they will never forget the broken promises made by Prime Minister Najib Razak and Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai,’which contributed to the death of their father. And both siblings want answers from the PM and Liow.

Tan Chong Chern and his sister, Tiney Tan from Sri Aman told reporters that during the recently-concluded State elections, both Najib and Liow went to Sri Aman and assured the people there that they would have a new hospital, two specialists, an ambulance (the present one is a van converted into an ambulance) and more medical staff. The BN candidate for Simanggan, Sri Aman, Dr Francis Hardin Hollis won the election.

That was three months ago, and today, nothing much has changed at the Sri Aman hospital where their father breathed his last.

Bureaucratic red tape

The siblings’ problems with the hospital go back July 19 last year when their 53-year-old father, national volleyball player Tan Ting Hui, had heart problems. Tan Sr was asked to go for surgery on August 18 last year at the Sarawak General Hospital, but doctors told him that he could wait and take medication instead.

On June 27, Tan Sr went back to the hospital for the operation but was told that since the SGH Heart section had moved to Sarawak International Medical Centre (SIMC) which caters for Heart diseases, they could not operate on him based on the booking appointments made previously by the SGH and he had to make new bookings.

Doctors at the SIMC gave the Tan family two options, which were to allow Tan Sr to stay in the SIMC, while they slot in a time for his operation or to go back and wait for the hospital to inform them. The family decided to let Tan Sr stay in the hospital as it meant that his chances of getting operated on would be faster.

Chong Chern said in the three weeks that his father stayed at the SIMC, his father complained of chest pains three times but each time, the doctors gave him medicine to stabilize him.

Dying and still the doctors delay

When the family asked doctors when they were going to operate, one doctor told the family that if they could not wait, they could go to the private hospital. Chong Chern said he learned that a Dr Jong was the same person who would be operating patients from both private and public hospital.

“We are not rich people so why do we need to pay a hefty sum of money to go to private hospital to be operated by the same doctor?’ he asked.

On July 18, the family was told that Tan Sr would be operated at 7 am the next day. The family expressed relief and after preparation was done at 6 am on the 19th July, a nurse told them that Dr Jong was sick and unable to operate. The next day, in the early morning of July 20th, they told the Tans that the doctor will operate on July 21st.

Chong Chern said doctors are human so he did not want to make any comment on the cancellation of the operation.

At 11 am the same day, a doctor came to see the family and said Dr Jong has to postpone the date of the operation again as his father’s condition did not allow him to do so. The same doctor said Tan Sr could be discharged on the same day and could come back on August 3 for an MRI check, Chong Chern said.

“It was already three weeks wait and my father was anxious to go back to Sri Aman after being away so long. The doctors even told us not to worry and gave us stronger medication for my father. They told him that he could walk around but to watch out for his food.

The last journey

So on July 20 afternoon, Tan Sri was discharged and went back to Sri Aman. On the 21st night, his father complained of being unwell and wanted to go to the hospital. The family rushed him to the Sri Aman hospital where he passed away. The hospital did not even have an oxygen tank, said Chong Chern.

Chong Chern whose sister sobbed quietly during the press conference said they may be poor but it did not mean that their father’s operation should be delayed just because he could not afford private medical care.

He wondered if Liow Tiong Lai only made the promise of hiring specialists to fish for votes before going back to West Malaysia and conveniently forgetting about what he hadsaid.

“Building a hospital is a long term plan but I am sure with urgent needs at Sri Aman, the Health Ministry should have transfer a specialist there as promised,” Chong Chem said.

State assemblywoman for Batu Kawa, Christina Chiew said SIMC, which was officiated early this year, was termed a five-star hospital like Hilton hotel.

“There is an estimated 1,500 heart patients annually and there is no point of having a beautiful hospital that lacks manpower to run it. A heart patient needs at least 6 months to wait for his orher turn to be operated on and that is a long wait for ill people,” said Christina.

Bail-out project

Chong Chieng Jen said the SIMC was a bail out project by the Federal government. “It took the SIMC 10 years to be constructed and cost RM400 million, that is a bed costing an average of RM1.2 million which was grossly over-estimated,” he said.

Pointing out that government is not taking the health issue as a priority, Chong lamented that two heart specialist surgeons whom he knew of had wanted to come back to serve in the state.

“One is working in England, another in Taiwan, both developed countries and had written in to the Ministry two months ago. There is always this talk of getting professionals back but to-date, the two doctors have yet to hear from the Ministry of Health. So are we saying that the two doctors are under qualified to serve in Malaysia and thus have been rejected," Chong threw the question to Liow.

Chong also wanted both the hospitals - SGH and SIMC - to give statistics of how many patients had passed on due to the long waiting list for surgery. He said the people needed to know how they were taken for a ride by such poor medical services, with the government only keen to spend on the construction of the building to benefit the crony developer firms.

- Malaysia Chronicle

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This is what Najib told the British PM about Bersih: A pack of lies

Prime Minister Najib Razak admitted he was grilled by his British counterpart David Cameron on the July 9 Bersih 2.0 rally for free and fair elections, but based on the information he reportedly gave, it looks like the Malaysian leader told a pack of lies.

"Everything that Najib said is twisted to suit himself and the BN. Even now, he insists that elections in this country are clean and fair. This itself is the biggest lie," PAS MP for Kuala Krai Hatta Ramli told Malaysia Chronicle.

Allows dissent but deports Bourdon

According to national news agency, Bernama, Najib explained to Cameron the real intention behind the "illegal rally" during his four-day official visit to the United Kingdom last week.

During his meeting at 10, Downing Street, Cameron had asked Najib many questions. 

"I had told the British prime minister that we have room for dissent in Malaysia," said Najib, when sharing his UK experience with some 3,000 people who greeted him at the KL International Airport on his earlier-than-expected return after visiting Turkmenistan, the United Kingdom and Italy.

Najib had cut short his holiday with his family and it is believed he did so to block French lawyer William Bourdon from spilling the beans on the Scorpenes submarines case and the Altantuya murder, in which has the PM has been accused of involvement.

Despite Najib's assurance to Cameron that Malaysia had room for dissent, several hours later, at the same airport, Bourdon was detained and will be deported at 11.30 pm Friday night.

No reasons have been given by the authorities but Bourdon was due to reveal details at a talk on Friday night about a VIP involved in the Scorpenes deal, which could also implicate Najib in the related Altantuya murder case. Najib had been the defense minister sanctioning the acquisition.

Bersih provoked police, elections have always been clean

According to him, he told Cameron that as the government, the question of public order must be protected while ensuring sufficient space for the people to express their dissatisfaction.

"I told him that we had offered a stadium but they had rejected. They wanted the Merdeka Stadium because their intention was merely to hold the procession," said Najib.

"Later they provoked the police. Make the police angry. When the police took action, they took photographs and posted them on the YouTube and they said it was police brutality."

Najib also told Cameron that the rally by the "unregistered body" was actually not to demand for electoral reforms.

"They were more keen to show that the Malaysian government is like that of the Middle East. They depicted the Malaysian government as autocratic. Actually, they want to wrest power from us who were chosen by the people," said the Malaysian PM.

He said the British prime minister was also assured that the Malaysian government had always upheld the principles of democracy.

"I said that we had never cheated in the general election in Malaysia. Elections in Malaysia have always been a clean election," added Najib.

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