Media Statement: Ensure oil money put into good use

Petronas executive vice president of finance Datuk George Ratilal on 5 Jun 2013 has openly disagreed with the Minister in Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Paul Low, who had previously attributed Malaysia poor ranking Resource Governance Index (RGI) to Petronas’ overseas non- disclosure agreements (NDA). Ratilal insisted that Petronas has been transparent in overseas operations and their standard of disclosure is as good as other international oil companies such as Shell and Exxon-Mobil.

This open disagreement from Petronas is clearly a rebuke aimed at our newly minted Minister in Prime Minister’s Department. My earlier rebuttal statement had argued that the poor RGI ranking has little to do with disclosure of overseas operations but operation and business activities within Malaysia and now Petronas confirmed it that even there’s such indicator, Petronas has been living up to international standard.

We hope that by now Paul Low has already read the RGI report and realize that Malaysia poor ranking in RGI is due to the lack of comprehensive disclosure policies in Malaysia legal framework such as the freedom of information law and the lax of Petroleum Development Act 1974 in requiring Petronas to disclose certain information of their operations and business decisions within Malaysia such as the award of contracts, exploration license, subsidies, royalty transfers etc. Petronas is not required by the law to disclose this information and therefore should not be the scapegoat of the Barisan Nasional government for their inability in resource governance.

If the BN Government is really serious about transparency, we would like to challenge BN to push for Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, which allows the public to seek information made by government ministries and department as well as government-linked companies (GLCs) like Petronas. With that, the public can ask for information from Petronas such as the award of contracts and license grants, which in turn lessen leakages and corruption in the process.

Media Statement: Singapore no role model for online media controls

Communications and Multimedia Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek has said that the federal government is studying the possibility of regulating online news portals, imitating Singapore’s move to do so.

Since Singapore - seen as being more sophisticated - has come up with the regulation, the Malaysian government will look into its feasibility, he said.

Before taking Singapore as a ‘role model’, we suggest that the minister looks at the 2013 Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters without Borders to measures the freedom to produce and circulate accurate news and information in 179 countries.

Singapore ranks worse than Malaysia, standing at 149th while Malaysia is at 145th. This is even after Malaysia suffered one of the biggest falls in ranking - a sharp drop of 23 places - among the countries surveyed.

Therefore, it is obvious that emulating Singapore’s regulations on Internet monitoring would be a clearly regressive move for Malaysia.

Media Statement: Stop Being 'BN Apologist'

Minister in Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Paul Low should perhaps do his homework first before attempting to “justify” Malaysia’s poor rankings in the Revenue Governance Index Report

Paul Low should read the Revenue Watch Institute (RWI) 2013 report first before defending the Barisan Nasional government of their inability in resource governance, which is clearly shown by the Malaysia’s poor ranking in the report’s Resource Governance Index (RGI).

In responding to the poor ranking, Paul Low was reported saying that it is because the disclosure of overseas agreements make up a "big item" in the index and Petronas has to respect the host government’s requests for non-disclosure while doing operation overseas. This excuse given is contrary to that stated in the RGI report.

Media Statement: Malaysia Poor Ranking in Resource Governance Index (RGI)

Malaysia fares worse than Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Iraq in the latest Resource Governance Index published by Revenue Watch Institute.

Malaysia ranks 34th out of 58 countries with a score of 46 out of 100 in Resource Governance Index (RGI) published on 8 May 2013 by Revenue Watch Institute (RWI), a non-profit organization that promotes effective, transparent and accountable management of natural resources. Malaysia is categorized as ‘weak’ among the four standards of governance - satisfactory, partial, weak and failing while our neighboring countries Indonesia and Philippine are categorized as partial with better rank of 14^th and 23^rd respectively. We also tail behind 8 African countries - Ghana (15^th), Liberia (16^th), Zambia (17^th), Morocco (25^th), Tanzania (27^th), Botswana (30^th), Gabon (32^nd) and Guinea (33^rd) as well as countries like Indonesia Kazakhstan (19^th), Venezuela (20^th), Azerbajian (28^th) and Iraq (29^th).

Petroleum sector is one of the most important sectors in Malaysia, representing 10% of gross domestic product and 20% of exports as well as 40% of federal government revenue in 2011.  According to Petroleum Development Act of 1974, Malaysia national oil firm, Petronas, has the exclusive right to manage the petroleum sector and can grant licenses and sign contracts without public scrutiny. It is only accountable to the Prime Minister. Because there’s a lack of disclosure policies, Petronas is currently publishing little information on extractive contracts or resource-funded subsidies. On licensing, it announces the award of licenses through press releases with little details and without the disclosure of the terms and conditions.

Stagnant Water to Dried Land

About 2 weeks ago we've received complains that an abandoned land near SS2 mall and Damansara Bistari has turned into a 'lake' - stagnant water that smells and a potential breeding ground for different diseases. 

So I did a press conference together with the residents, pegawai kesihatan from MBPJ and our councillor Lee Suet Sen on 18 May 2013. The land owner responded to the call and dried up the land. On the right is the picture of the dried land on 28 May 2013.

To all the land owners, please make sure your land don't pose any inconvenience and potential health hazard to the residents around. Thanks. 

Flash Flood, Rivers and JPS

I did a press conference on 22 May 2013 together with the residents around Jalan SS21/42a to highlight the urgency of JPS (Jabatan Pengairan dan Saliran) to start their river embankment  project, which was supposed to start on 13 Mar 2013. The JPS contractor has finally started work the following day after the press conference. 

Serious riverbank erosion as a consequence of the lack of concrete embankment not only pose danger to buildings by the side of the river (pic) but also bring significant silting effect (pic) downstream, causing shallower riverbeds and potentially flash flood. In fact, Kampung Chempaka, which is situated downstream from this area, just suffered flash flood about 3 weeks ago at Jalan PJU 1/4. 

Erosion: Dangerous to Buildings by Riverside (upper side of the pic)

Silting Effect: Accumulation of Sediments

12 Days After GE

I would like to share with you here a beautiful write-up by Lauren Chew, my 17 year-old intern, about her internship with me. Lauren is in the middle in the photo, while her dad by her side. Mr Chew entrusted his daughter to me just a few months before she leaves for US to pursue her study in Political Science.

Do take some time to read this article. It's simply beautiful. This is from a 17 year-old Malaysian girl who witnessed the dirty GE13 and yet still believe that we can change and there is hope for this nation, because beauty outweighs the ugly - infinitely.

Quick Updates

Dear readers of this blog, 

It's been a long time since I've updated my blog. For those who are expecting sustainable development and urban planning articles from me (which I've  mentioned in my previous blog that I am going to write) and those who requested me to write more in Chinese, please be patient ya, I am a bit busy now.

So what have I been up to? 

I've been tied up with the preparation works for DAP social media election strategy, planning and execution. Najib said that this is a social media election, and if there's one thing that I would finally agree with him, it would be this. That's why we have been working really hard to make sure everything fell into place come election time. Today should be the last day of preparation, tightening loose ends and waiting for the nomination and election dates to confirm!! **phew** 

In the DAP and Pakatan Rakyat, we are facing huge disadvantage over our opponent in term of election publicity. To describe that it would be this: David vs Goliath. Our main disadvantages are media and money. 

The main media (TV, radio and newspaper) are all controlled by the Barisan Nasional. O ya, Rais Yatim did say that Pakatan Rakyat are allowed 10 minutes to present our manifesto in RTM. But they are enjoying the remaining of the 1430 minutes of the day?? This is the biggest humiliation to the democracy of this country!! In term of money, our fund is no where near, Barisan Nasional has literally splashing tax-payer money everywhere to get votes. RM 2 million for Psy in Penang is peanut, they've just spent RM 36 million last month alone on Astro advertisement!

So guys, it's going to be a tough fight. And yes, we are on a very disadvantaged position, but LAWAN TETAP LAWAN. And remember, in that story, David defeated Goliath with just one stone. Hopefully with our works and campaigns in the cyber world, we can nullify their monopoly in the media and huge financial resources. If you are active on Facebook, you'll see a lot more from us after the nomination and election dates are confirmed. Also, we have just launched UBAH TV, an online 24 hours TV channel, please help us promote. You can access to the online channel at: http://ubah.tv  

I just want to let you know that, behind all the videos, graphics and UBAH TV that you see or are going to see on Facebook, Youtube and online, are a group of young, talented and dedicated staffs and volunteers. They have been working days and nights. Hopefully our works will pay off with a change of regime! That will be the biggest reward for us all.

Over in PJ, I have continued to work with Theresa Lim (Chairman of JKKK Kampung Chempaka) to serve people in Kampung Chempaka. We've just got the land geran for about 50 residents here. Many the residents have applied for those lands for many many years to no avail. In fact, this is the first ones to be approved after almost 10 long years. There should be an institutionalised change in term of new village land planning (which I shall discuss perhaps in the future), but for this point of time, what we could do was to help the residents to first solve their immediate problems. Here is the picture when we give away the geran to the residents.

When the federal government gave away their vote-buying BR1M (Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia), they seem to have forgotten that many of the old people did not know how to apply for it. BR1M though a BN program, the money belong to the rakyat, so we've started a 4 weeks registration drive in the Kg Chempaka and Kg Damansara to help the the residents to register BR1M so those eligible will be able to get their RM500. I've decided that we should help them to apply online straight so to reduce clerical errors of paper applications. Here are the pictures of us in one of those registration drive nights. 

If you notice, many of the volunteers are young (some not in the picture), the young I am talking about here is really young, teens and early twenties. But I must admit that they are way better than me in network and computer! Above all, I am so encouraged to see them coming out to serve the community in young age, and youth like that are hope to our society. 

Source: Chinese Rocket Fanpage

Source: Chinese Rocket Fanpage

I have many more to update you all, but left with very little time, tons of work waiting now. I must apologize for my pasar English in this letter. Bye!

Ubah Sekarang, Bersihkan Malaysia!

Cheers,
Bee Yin