Descendents of Prophet Muhammad urged Nizar to resign

This source is from Bernama so its authenticity will be questioned
even more.

Megat are direct descendents of Prophet Muhammad but not throught
their father's lineage any more. Those with the father's lineage are
called Syed or Sharif. Those with Syed, especially those with strong
Indian looks are suspect because Indians tend to label all Arabs as
Syed,

Many of these Megat may not be aware of the significance of this
title. Many thought that it is just a royalty title. So it will be
even worse for ordinary people like myself. I only knew about it more
clearly last month.

In Malaysia Megat tends to hold high offices because they tend to be
the more educated, and many of their ancestors had held high offices,
so it was synonymous with high office and even royalty as I had just
found out that Sultan of Perak is just a Megat instead of the full
Syed.

So by right descendents of Prophet Muhammad, no matter from the father
or mother, after all, all known descendents are from the daughter of
Prophet Muhammad, i.e. the mother's side, are obliged to uphold a high
standard of Islamic principles, not to subject themselves to greed and
corruption. They must hold their esteem in respecting justice.

Demanding Nizar to resign is completely unethical when he has
constitutional grounds to reject an order from the Sultan and condemn
the Sultan's refusal to dissolve the State Assembly as demanded by the
Constitution of Perak. Even if the courts were to decide in favour of
the Sultan, and thus reinterpreting the constitution and wordings of
Malaysian constitution, the normal court practises must be obeyed.
When challenged, the status quo must remain, i.e. Nizar is stil the
Chief Minister, unless the courts had made a decision.

It is also made worse by the facts that the 3 independent Assemblymen
were deemed to show their support in front of the Sultan but not
witnessed by the parties affected, which is against the principle of
justice, and they had already been dismissed by the Speaker and the EC
does not have the authority to decide on the evidence of the Speaker
in vacating these seats. As far as the normal law is concerned, they
have already been dismissed but the courts can still reinterpret the
law and reverse the decisions of government officials.

With all these arguments, only a DAYUS, a crime worse than death, will
obey the Sultan. Obeying the Sultan in resigning is like committing
murder. Nizar must fight for his rights if he were to uphold Islamic
principles as ordered by the Quran. The Megats, as descendents of
Prophet Muhammad should also urge Nizar to bring the matter to the
courts and refuse to resign in order to protect his rights.

Whatever persecutions that Nizar faces, he should be patient, SABAR,
which is the real SABAR, a basis of Islamic faith, not to be DAYUS,
condemned by Islam, i.e. patient to the point of being pathetic in
accepted injustices.

In fact, so far Anwar is the only one practising the true Sabar. He
has suffered persecutions since his student days, in defending the
rights of the poor and disprivileged.

http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsgeneral.php?id=388502

February 08, 2009 23:08 PM

Nizar Urged To Step Down Honourably

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 8 (Bernama) -- The Persatuan Keturunan Megat Terawis
Malaysia, an organisation representing the Megat clan, has urged Datuk
Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin to step down as the Menteri Besar of
Perak honourably.

Its secretary Megat Iskandar Megat Zaharuddin said Nizar should
emulate the Orang Kaya Bendahara during the reign of the 15th Sultan
of Perak in the 18th century who stepped down along with senior state
officials when asked to do so because of a misunderstanding with the
Sultan and the government at that time.

According to Megat Iskandar, the role of the Orang Kaya Bendahara then
was the same as the Menteri Besar now.

"In the interest of the people of Perak, we urge Datuk Seri Nizar and
his state executive councillors to step down honourably and do not go
against the Sultan," he said in a statement here today.

To do otherwise was tantamount to treason, he added.

On Friday, Sultan Azlan Shah of Perak asked the Pakatan Rakyat
government to resign and Nizar step down as the Menteri Besar after
the coalition failed to command a majority in the state's legislature,
but Nizar refused to budge.

The clan's history dates back to the very first sultan in the state,
that of Paduka Seri Sultan Muzaffar Shah I whereby the Orang Kaya
Bendahara was also from the clan.

-- BERNAMA

Pairin deemed to have resigned in 1984!!!

Daily express Sabah, 5th February 2009:

Although Pairin didn't challenge the resignations of Lajim, he
resigned out of his own free will showing that he was just a weak
leader or easily bought over.

Pairin himself suffered the same fate in 1984 when he was deemed to
have resigned. The EC immediately dissolved the state assembly seat
and when Pairin brought his case to court, he lost his case, i.e. the
court decided that Pairin was to have deemed to have resigned. The EC
is now proven to be extremely unfair.

http://groups.google.com.my/group/soc.culture.malaysia/browse_thread/thread/553eedde03609da9?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=pairin+kitingan+resign+berjaya+1984#3f750c7b05ba0f9b

""I said, 'Okay, I resign.' I took my papers and walked out and as I
left the hall, the delegates from Tambunan walked out with me." Public
spates followed and finally, Berjaya submitted an undated resignation
letter all its assemblymen had to sign, and vacated Pairin's Tambunan
state seat, forcing a by-election.

Berjaya was all-powerful, having won almost 90 per cent of the 48
state seats in the 1981 state elections, and it was unthinkable for
anyone to even consider winning as an independent against it.

But on Dec 30, 1984, the people of Tambunan rallied around their son
and he soundly defeated his nephew Roger Ongkili to win the Tambunan
seat as an independent.

Unable to deal with defeat, Harris punished the people of Tambunan. He
abrogated its district status, forcing people who had government
business to go to Keningau, more than an hour away on unpaved, pebbled
bad roads. "

http://www.theedgedaily.com/cms/content.jsp?id=com.tms.cms.article.Article_3a479fc5-cb73c03a-1c6866d0-16bd443c

"Facing a spate of defections after winning the state's third election
in eight years in 1994, Pairin had used the letters in an attempt to
force by-elections by saying that the three had quit their seats.

Although Lajim, Rubin and Zaini subsequently lodged police reports to
challenge the validity of their "resignations", it remains untested in
court. For, by then, more defections from PBS had rendered the
question academic and the trio did not pursue it in court after BN
formed the state government.

Pairin's attempt to dissolve the state assembly also failed after
former Sabah Yang di-Pertua Negeri Tun Mohamad Said Keruak refused to
give his consent.

After failing to hang on to his assemblymen and state, Pairin became
the state's shortest-term chief minister, tendering his own
resignation less than one month after he was sworn in. "

Trengganu the 2nd poorest in Malaysia after Sabah!!!!

http://blog.limkitsiang.com/2008/01/22/mr-vacuum-cleaner-sabah-and-sabah-development-corridor/

From the blog above:
• How the SDC will eradicate poverty in Sabah, which is the worst of
all states in the country, with an incidence of poverty of 23% in
2004, much higher than the two other poverty-stricken states of
Terengganu (15.4%) and Kelantan (10.6%). Sabah has also the worst hard-
core poverty rate at 6.5% as compared to the next three states with
the highest incidence, i.e. Terengganu 4.4% and Kedah and Kelantan
1.3%.

The iron is that these are strong BN supporters and worse oil
producers.

Similar to Zimbabwe, the strongest supporters of Mugabe are the
poorests and now they still support Mugabe despite suffering a million
percent inflation and a plague of Cholera, no doubt targeting the
poor.

Are these figures correct?
Based on my old reading for the 2006 figures, Sabah has a figure of
23% and that I'm pretty sure. But for Trengganu to be the second
poorest as well, is surprising to me.

I tend to give the benefit of the doubt to the authors because they
usually don't lie. They only confuse people by selective manipulation
of facts or hiding facts with comments. The only thing we have to do
is to verify these sources.

Based on my observations in 1996, it was pretty accurate. I can see
many poor houses in Trengganu while none at all in Kelantan. The most
striking is the non-breaking of street lights the moment I enter
Kelantan, although only one side of the road is lighted. For Sabah, I
should be very clear because my village, Batu Sapi is the place where
the most poor live. I just don't want to face the reality that many of
my relatives are living in abject poverty.

Sabah's Marginal Gas Reserves but deserves RM2billion pipeline?

Who is this idiotic John Teo?

What is wrong with Sabahans in Petronal board of directors?
Isn't Sabah a major contributor to Petronas Revenue?

And yet not a single Sabahan in Petronas board of directorship?

And what is wrong with SAbahans demanding that the GAs and Oil in
Sabah remain in SAbah's land?
It belongs to SAbah only, not to Malaysia or rather MALAYA!

Now, the irony is that SAbah does not even get a single cent of what
had been extracted from SAbah apart from the maintainance and
environmental costs to Sabah.

The gas pipleline will be even worse. As mentioned, despite being
marginal, Petronas would rather destroy the beauty of SAbah and the
livelihood of its citizens in return for a marginal revenue from
Sabah's gas.

And worse, Sabah does not even get a single share of gas subsides
being deprived of subsidised gas, while forced to take SUBSIDED COAL,
which will destroy Sabah's environment even more. The much cleaner gas
is denied to Sabah and only available to Malaysia, i.e Malaya with all
the IPP and gas pump stations available in Malaysia but not in Sabah.

The start reality is that Sabah has never been considered as
Malaysia, only a subject of Malaysia to be exploited and not to be
given any subsidies, so refering to West Malaysia as only Malaysia is
only correct. After all, that is what West Malaysians keep on calling
themselves among each other as Malaysians, never as West Malaysians
despite not even a single Sabahan being involved, let alone benefit.

As for Indonesian oil wells not being dug anymore for the last ten
years, it will benefit them in the long run. Their standard of living,
as judged by the much higher poverty index compared to Sabah is more
factual proof of this policy. Sabah will remain poor as there is not a
single project to reduce poverty in Sabah, only hard-core poverty, and
oil revenue or even subsidies continue to be denied from Sabah.

Not even a single budget had been allocated to the Sabah Development
Corridor apart from the stealing of SAbah's land, against all
constitutional provisions that land should belong to the State
Government, not Federal Government.

Relying more on private investment that will never come without any
subsidised and clean power for Sabah using Sabah's own gas and oil
reserves. The projected increase in GDP is meaningless when it is just
a normal increase in such a long time frame, and it will never reduce
the incidence of poverty in Sabah because by that time the population
of Sabah will increase tremendously as well.

http://sdc.net.my/sdc/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5&Itemid=6

Tourism is emphasised and yet a dirty Coal Power Plant from China
using highly subsidised coal is to be built in Sandakan. It will
pollute the entire seas in the East Coast of Sabah destroying the
turtle islands and sipadan Islands because the main target is to strip
mine Danum Valley for Coal.

Then SDC would have succeeded because the amount of Money collected by
the Federal Govenment will be immense thus increasing the GDP of
SAbah, just as Oil is, and yet, little of it goes to Sabahans, only to
Malaysians, i.e. Malayans.

http://sdc.net.my/sdc/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=86&Itemid=82

Sabah Economy PDF Print E-mail
Sabah's economy was traditionally heavily lumber dependent, based on
export of tropical timber, but with increasing depletion of the
natural forests and ecological efforts to save remaining natural
rainforest areas, palm oil has emerged as a more sustainable resource.
Other agricultural products important in the Sabah economy include
rubber and cacao. Tourism is currently the second largest contributor
to the economy. There are other exports; like seafood & vegetable.

In 1970, Sabah ranked as one of the richest states in the federation,
with a per capita GDP second only to Selangor (which then included
Kuala Lumpur).[16] However, despite its vast wealth of natural
resources, Sabah is currently the poorest of Malaysia's states.
Average incomes are now among the lowest in Malaysia, and with a
considerably higher cost of living than in West Malaysia. In 2000,
Sabah had an unemployment rate of 5.6 per cent - the highest of any
Malaysian state and almost twice the national average of 3.1 per cent.
The state has the highest poverty level in the country at 16 per cent,
more than three times the national average. Part of the problem is the
inequitable distribution of wealth between the State and the Federal
government, and large numbers of illegal immigrants from Indonesia,
Philippines, even East Timor, whose population was estimated to be in
the region of half a million people.

The recent tabling of Ninth Malaysia Plan has allocated RM16.908
billion for Sabah, the second highest state allocation after
Sarawak's. The funds is pledged to improve the state's rural areas,
improving the state's transportation and utilities infrastructures and
boosting the economy of Sabah. The government has placed its focus on
three major areas of the economy which have the potential to be
Sabah's growth engine. These are agriculture, manufacturing and
tourism.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 12 November 2008 )

If you read these figures, it certainly contradict the UNHDP figures
of 23% when Poverty income was stated at RM690 in 2006. In 2007 the
poverty income has increased to RM820 so most probably the incidence
of poverty should increase even more instead of getting less than 16%.

And the budget has been reduce to only RM16 billion from RM20 billion
which was only 7.9% of total national budget for Sabah's population of
14% and area of 23%. Now it will be even much less. What hope is there
for SAbah.

Physical evidence supports the lack of funding for SAbah because for
more than 20 years the road to Mersilau, Kudasang, a highland region
is much worse than Batak, Sumatra in the 1980s. At least I didn't
encounter any landslides or broken roads. I though land in the Crocker
range may be too unstable but after 20 years, it still remains
unstable. The only explanation is that insufficient fund is allocated
to stabilise the roads compared to Batak highland roads 20 years ago
in Sumatra, Indonesia.

The future for Sabah is indeed very bleak.

2009/01/30
JOHN TEO Stark choice over Sabah's gas resources
By : John Teo
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UNLIKE many fellow Malaysians who waxed unambiguously euphoric about
March 8 last year, I tend to vacillate between euphoria and
despondency, and more often than not, the latter.
It is of course to be expected that we as a nation and people think
only the best of ourselves; that collectively the good in us outweighs
the bad and that when the occasion demands, we will all rise to the
occasion. Not so fast.

My despondency is mostly a function of my observations of what happens
in our neighbourhood. It is mostly a tale of popular euphoria over the
triumph of the popular will against dark political forces, followed
soon after by a return to the sordid business-as-usual.

Sure, there are groups in the region who stand vigilant and on guard
all the time and are brave enough to always stand up to be counted if
need be.

But that is not the point. Such people on the vanguard fighting the
cause of democracy for democracy's sake may be heroic but completely
miss the point, in my reckoning. Democracy's not at fault. Not
usually, anyway. But people are.
The reason why a country such as the Philippines remains needlessly
impoverished despite literally sitting atop mounds of gold and other
precious minerals is not because of a lack of democracy but rather,
its excess.

The God-given natural wealth of the Philippines remains largely
untapped because there are any number of vested groups -- some with
purely selfish intent, others not -- willing and able to make sure the
wealth remains untouched.

Democracy in action, surely, but a poor democracy is an unstable
democracy and thus, the dismal vicious cycle turns.

When I point to the uninspiring record of our neighbours in nation-
building, the usual rejoinder is, why should we look at uninspiring
role models in the region and not more inspiring ones further afield,
such as Australia and New Zealand?

Fair enough -- except that I think we are putting laudable idealism
way ahead of the sad reality we face.

The reality, for example, that had the decision not been made well
before last March 8 to tap Sabah's offshore gas reserves, we may well
be looking now at a made-in-Malaysia Philippine scenario: that Sabah's
gas resources may remain untouched, perhaps for eternity.

For, as clearly enunciated recently by Petronas, Sabah's rather
marginal gas reserves are only commercially recoverable if piped to
the existing processing facilities serving the far richer gas patches
offshore in Bintulu, Sarawak.

But powerful political forces in Sabah, emboldened by the fact of a
severely weakened Federal Government post-March 8, are unabashedly
pandering to the populist outcry to scrap the gas pipeline from Sabah
to Bintulu.

These political groups had better be careful what they wish for, since
scrapping the pipeline may well render the expensive project to
extract Sabah's offshore gas no longer commercially viable. No
pipeline, no gas from Sabah. The choice cannot be any more stark.

But, of course, the fight to oppose the pipeline may be nothing more
than a smokescreen. There were unsubtle hints and demands about
representation for Sabahans (read: politically well-connected
Sabahans) on lucrative Petronas company boards.

Which brings me to the other unfortunate role model of a newly-
democratic Indonesia, which has also newly become a net oil importer
precisely because squabbles -- usually politically tinged -- helped
ensure the country has not invested in new oil wells for over a
decade.

Is there a real economic trade-off for political liberalisation in
these parts? You better believe it.

More discrimination and lies about Sabah Teachers

Now they say they want to recruit Sabahan teachers but they had
forcefully transfer Sabahan to West Malaysia suffering from
discrimination and underutilisation there.

While Sabah suffers from lack of teachers and high cost of paying West
Malaysian teachers that are given allowances that double their
salaries. Sabahan who are transfered to West Malaysia suffer from a
reduction of income.

No wonder the previous budget allocation for Sabah is 16% of national
budget. Most probably due to the high cost of paying West Malaysian
teachers in Sabah, because many schools are still without any table
and chairs as exemplified by one Kalabakan school. By now, they should
have chairs but we never know how many schools still suffer from the
same fate.

As for responses from Sabahans in joining the teaching profession,
many professionals already applied and got these jobs. Not only
engineers, but also surveyors.

Rewards for Sabah Sarawak, teachers

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SEREMBAN: Teachers willing to be transferred to rural areas,
especially in Sabah and Sarawak, will soon enjoy monetary rewards,
said Deputy Education Minister Datuk Razali Ismail.
"The ministry is aware of the sacrifices these teachers are making and
has come up with a special allowance, ranging from RM500 to RM1,500
for them."

He said the ministry also wanted Sabah and Sawarak residents to join
the profession.

The ministry had to turn to teachers from peninsular Malaysia to
volunteer to teach in rural areas, Razali added.

"We need more Sabah and Sarawak people to teach in their states as
they would be more suited and knowledgeable of local customs and
traditions," he said after opening the Teachers Resource Centre (PKG)
Convention 2008 at Sekolah Menengah Kebang-saan King George here.
He aslo said the ministry had organised walk-in interviews to attract
non-Malays to become teachers to boost racial integration in national
schools.

Price of Dictatorship: Zimbabwe

How would anyone tolerate Mugabe?

And yet he continues to win elections.

It reminds of Sabah that is already the poorest and yet stll vote the
government that makes it this poor.

Even the amount of Telecom Subisidies is already the lowest with only
3 sites, while hundreds of sites in the already rich Malaya, and yet
nobody seems to be making a noise at all.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article4902920.ece

O-level pass rates in Zimbabwe, once the envy of Africa, have fallen
from 72 per cent in the mid-1990s to 11 per cent. Now the government
has been forced to cancel the academic year

Jan Raath in Harare

The class of 2008 will not receive an education. Since the school year
began in January, Zimbabwe's 4.5 million pupils have had a total of 23
days uninterrupted in the classroom, teaching unions say - a sorry
state for a country that once had the highest standard of education in
Africa.

President Mugabe became an African hero of rare distinction when he
carried out a big expansion of the education system in the early years
of his rule. As with most of the country's infrastructure, that system
is now in the process of total collapse.

In the mid-1990s there was a national O-level pass rate of 72 per
cent. Last year it crashed to 11 per cent. Many schools recorded zero
passes.

To avoid the humiliation of total failure in 2008 the Government has
cancelled the academic year. "It would be criminal if the Government
allows examinations to go ahead," Raymond Majongwe, the secretary-
general of the Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe, said.
Related Links

* Mugabe's men seize chance to take white farms

* Zimbabwe deal faces collapse

* Zimbabwe's children and the lost generation

In January teachers went on a prolonged strike over their salaries. In
April, Mr Mugabe's Zanu (PF) party accused them of supporting the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) during the March elections and
blamed them for the President's first-round defeat.

Six teachers were murdered and thousands assaulted by Zanu (PF)
militia in the violence that marred the second-round presidential
election on June 27.

Schools were looted and turned into torture centres. Teachers
disappeared. Many are still unable to return for fear of being
disciplined.

Now the coup de grace to the education system is being delivered by
hyperinflation. Teachers had their salaries doubled last week to the
equivalent of £5.70 a month — barely enough for bus fares and bread
for four days.

The handful of private and state schools where parents can pay large
supplements to teachers' salaries are the only ones operating. In most
schools where teachers do turn up pupil attendance is dwindling.

"We come to school and we entertain the kids until 10am, then we send
them home," Amos Musoni, from Sengwe primary school in the south of
the country, said. "There were ten teachers last week, out of 32. They
are there because they have no money to leave. We don't even have
chalk, or red pens, never mind books."

At one of Harare's government boys' high schools, benches are being
sawn up to provide wood for O-level woodwork examinations - not that
anyone knows when they will happen.

"O and A-level pupils go home next week to study for their finals,"
the headmaster said. "But there is no timetable. Nor do we have their
June mid-year results."

Urban schools have been overwhelmed by water and power cuts. One
primary school in Mabvuku township, Harare, has not had water for five
years. A Harare girls' school has been seeking an axe to chop down
trees for firewood to cook food.

Providing school food at a time of comprehensive agricultural failure
is a struggle. Mr Majongwe said hundreds of rural schools had sent
their boarders home because they could no longer feed them.

Mr Musoni, from Sengwe, is pathetically thin. "There is no food," he
said. "People are starving." Students at Harare Polytechnic rioted
last week after they were served sadza, the stiff maize porridge that
is the national staple, without salt or cabbage.

The country's four leading universities have failed to open since the
start of their first term in mid-August. At the University of
Zimbabwe, the country's leading tertiary institute, a notice with last
Friday's date on a faculty building tells students that lectures will
begin "on a date to be advised".

Levy Nyagura, the Vice-Chancellor, said that the university had "no
water, no electricity and no funds".

Ellen Murogodo, a would-be first-year social work student, keeps
returning to the campus to register only to be told to try again a
week later. To pay for her journey she sets up a stand outside the
university's Great Hall where she sells popcorn and cigarettes.

"Mugabe was a teacher himself [in the 1950s]," Mr Majongwe said. "He
knows the potential of teachers as agents for change. That is why he
has deliberately destroyed education."

New talks on a power-sharing government in Zimbabwe failed yesterday
to end a stalemate over Cabinet posts, the opposition MDC said.

There is no clean COAL POWER FOR SABAH

It is clear from the Palin-Bidden debate that clean-coal is still far
away in the future with China building lots of dirty coal power plants.

The coal power plant in Sabah will be similarly dirty, destroying the
enviroment in Sabah even more. It is already bad, but it will make it
even worse.

The worst part is that, we already have excess power capacity in Bakun,
that had already destroyed thousands of acres of environment, but it is
never to be transmitted to Sabah and the nearby areas.

Instead, another 8 billion RM were to be invested, above the 4 billion
RM used to build it, in order to transmit power to Malaya thousands of
km under the sea. And Malaya already have excess electricity generating
capacity.

What is the rationale of all this?

Economically it will be devastating to Sabah that relies on tourism for
its only economic activity. Industry will never be economical without
any support on the infrastructures, such as roads.

Transport companies are going bankrupt because of the limitations of
35000 kgs loading capacities instead of the 55,000 for Malaya.

Material costs are already high because everything had to be imported
via Malaya, causing more than 20% overheads in cost of materials and
transportations of finished goods.

Sabah will remain the poorest in Malaysia and the whole world.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/02/debate.transcript/

BIDEN:

...

The way in which we can stop the greenhouse gases from emitting. We
believe -- Barack Obama believes by investing in clean coal and safe
nuclear, we can not only create jobs in wind and solar here in the
United States, we can export it.

China is building one to three new coal-fired plants burning dirty coal
per week. It's polluting not only the atmosphere but the West Coast of
the United States. We should export the technology by investing in clean
coal technology.

...

http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=60177
DAILY EXPRESS NEWS Zakaria: Don't blame Govt for power woes if

Kota Kinabalu: The public, especially those living in the State's east
coast, should not blame the Government if the proposed coal-fired power
plant in Sandakan failed to materialise, thus creating a severe power
shortage in the region.

Gum-Gum Assemblyman Datuk Zakaria Edris said the public as well as
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who opposed the setting up of the
plant should realise the importance of the facility not only for
Sandakan but the entire east coast.

"Areas in the east coast such as Sandakan, Lahad Datu and Tawau are
desperate for electricity due to the growth in population as well as
economic activities. Should the power shortage persist, economic growth
in these areas will be affected," he said when met during the Chief
Minister's Hari Raya Open House here on Wednesday.

Zakaria said he and 43 other representatives of the Government as well
as NGOs had visited several coal-powered power plants in Kuching, Johor
Baru, Perak and Selangor.

"From the visit we found out that the plant in Johor Baru, which has a
capacity of 2,000 megawatts, did not affect the environment. Even
Singapore, which is so near and conscious about the environment, made no
objections regarding the plant," he said.

"So what is wrong with having a coal-fired power plant in Sandakan which
has a capacity of only 300 megawatts, knowing that Sabah will face
severe power shortage by 2010," he added.

Zakaria also said the so-called petition signed by some 50,000 people
who were against the project did not reflect the views of the people as
a whole.

He said those collecting the signatures were not giving out the correct
information by claiming, among others, that the plant would cause cancer.

"If this is true, we want evidence. In Johor, Selangor, Kuching and
Perak (where the plants already exist), there has been no reports about
any deaths related to the plant," he said, adding that there were
certain parties who were misleading the public.

"I appeal to the people to see the positives for the benefit of all.
Sandakan is poised for rapid growth and is aiming to be an education hub
and this in turn needs power."

He also said that should the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for
the plant pass, it would be set up somewhere in Gum-Gum or Sekong.
--
Sabah is heaven. Beautiful shark-free beaches and mountains next to
civilisation with no natural and man-made disasters except Malaysia.
My homepage:
http://othman.000webhost.info/
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