Rojak and Cocktail: Johor Baru, cowboy town?

Johor Baru, cowboy town?

Enough is Enough !

When Lee Kuan Yew said this few years ago, we, the residents of Johor state, felt embarassed and disgusted by his remark. Now it seems the entire Malaysia is a "cowboy country" !

Another life has been snuffed out, most probably as a result of the rampant crime of snatch theft, in Johore Baru yesterday, when a salesgirl and part-time student, Chang Shu Chen, 18, was found dead by the roadside about 1 km from her home.

A part-time student, who went against her family’s advice not to walk to her workplace, was found dead by the roadside about 1km from her home.

Chang Shu Chen, who worked as a salesgirl at a shopping mall here, was found lying motionless along Jalan Persisiran Perling 1 at 11.28am yesterday.

She was last seen leaving her home at 10.15am.

Her brother Chang Wee Tat, 21, said her handbag, which contained an umbrella and a water bottle, was missing.

However, Shu Chen’s other belongings, including money, mobile phone, ATM cards and house keys were found in the pockets of her pants.

Wee Tat said his sister had been working at a music store in the shopping complex for about six months and usually took the bus to work.

“But sometimes, when she didn’t want to wait for the bus, she would walk. I have told her countless times not to walk to work. I felt it was not safe. But she did not listen,” he said.

Wee Tat, his other sister Shu Xuan, and relatives were in shock when met at the Sultanah Aminah Hospital mortuary.

Their mother is away in Brunei. Their father had passed away.

There was another victim of the rampant traumatic crime of snatch theft in Johore Baru – a 32-year-old purchasing executive who suffered parang-slashes when two men on a motorcycle tried to grab her handbag outside her Taman Johor Jaya home, requiring 28 stitches on her right hand from a 10 cm wound.

In the past two weeks, Malaysians have been battered with one report after another of the senseless killings from traumatic crimes, whether 18-year-old Tunku Abdul Rahman (TAR) College student Lee Kean Yip from Ipoh, murdered in a snatch theft incident in Wangsa Maju, Kuala Lumpur; make-up artist Indra Shahril Mohd Salleh murdered in his shop in Johore Baru; pump attendant, Chai Joon Boi, 54, robbed and murdered in his house in Serian, Sarawak; 25-year-old sales girl Ng Chew Lim who sustained fatal internal head injuries when she fell down the staircase in a scuffle with a drug addict at the Berjaya Megamall shopping centre in Kuantan.

In another news from NST:

Residents urged to join war on crime
13 Aug 2006

KUALA LUMPUR: City dwellers should take more responsibility for their own safety.

Kuala Lumpur deputy police chief Datuk Ahmad Bahrin Idrus said yesterday people sometimes left themselves open to robbery and snatch thefts in isolated areas and car parks. Robbers were opportunists and people must be more alert, Ahmad said after the launch of the Sentul District Rakan Cop at Wangsa Maju Jaya Jusco.

He said witnesses often refused to come forward out of fear for their safety, and without their help it was impossible for police to fight crime. He said with Visit Malaysia Year 2007, city police would strengthen their presence in tourist areas. However, the public must also help the police, he said.

Wangsa Maju MP and Federal Territory Parliamentary Secretary Yew Teong Look, who launched the programme, said CCTV cameras would be installed in Desa Setapak, Section 2 in Taman Melati, and Melati Utama.

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新山数百人游行声讨攫匪

（新山12日讯）今早由柏伶花园居民号召的和平声讨大会，数百名气愤难平的居民及国州议员纷纷举起大字报及布条游行，同声谴责无良劫匪谋财害命的可耻行为。

据现场所见，参与的居民纷纷站在培华小学外的路段，高举大字报及布条齐声谴责攫夺匪丧尽天良外，也呼吁警方尽自己的本分，维护日益败坏的社会治安。

游行队伍在前往死者程嫊妗住家至少约1公里的路程中，不断地升起印有“天理何在”、“我们的安全在哪里”、“警方可以做什么、警方可以保障人民吗？”“社会生病”等字眼布条及大字报示众，提醒居民已不再安全。

居民一度情绪高昂呐喊要求政府修改法令，判干案的攫夺匪死刑或施以鞭刑，以遏制攫夺案一再发生。

站在路边抗议的居民不顾炎阳高空，高举“请按车笛响应”大字报，要求经过的车辆鸣起车笛，同声为死者及令人深感失望的社会治安怒吼，而路过的车辆也即时响应，整个声讨大会充斥人民的怒骂声及车笛声。
(Source:Nanyang.com)

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Mahathir out to topple prime minister: report

KUALA LUMPUR : Former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad is out to topple his successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as fears grow over divisions in the ruling party, reports said.

Influential cabinet minister Nazri Abdul Aziz, citing information he had gleaned from Mahathir's conversations with friends, said the ex-premier was working to unseat Abdullah, also president of the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).

"If he continues his actions to destroy UMNO, to bring down the president, I will be at the forefront as a warrior to defend the party," Nazri was quoted as saying in the New Straits Times.

Nearly 200 UMNO divisions are currently holding their annual meetings nationwide and the dispute between the two has featured high on the agenda.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, insisting there were no serious party rifts, said UMNO's leadership still supported Abdullah, who last week went on national television to deny Mahathir's claims of corruption and nepotism.

"We are not supporting the prime minister because we have to. We are supporting him because we want to," Najib was quoted as saying in the newspaper.

The row has led to worries amongst UMNO members of growing strife within the party, and concerns that opposition parties will capitalise on the bitter public dispute.

UMNO's secretary-general Mohamad Radzi Sheikh Ahmad over the weekend warned the quarrel could affect the outcome of the next general election, due by 2009, and called for party unity.

"We will not be able to face the election confidently if our leadership is not stable. I pray (Mahathir and Abdullah) will find a way to resolve this issue," he was quoted as saying by the state Bernama news agency.

Mahathir has vowed to continue his attacks on a number of government policies, including the scrapping of plans for a bridge to Singapore, as well as alleged nepotism in business dealings by some of Abdullah's family members.

The elder statesman on Saturday denied he was causing divisions within the party or that he wanted to see Abdullah step down.

"That is for UMNO to decide, not for me to decide," he told reporters.

Mahathir also began circulating a letter to some three million UMNO members alleging the party's leadership was stifling him by pressuring UMNO groups to cancel party speaking engagements.

Abdullah's son-in-law has sold his shares in a high-profile financial company after claims he had obtained them through nepotism, a report said Sunday.

Khairy Jamaluddin, stung by Mahathir's allegations, on Friday sold his entire stake in investment and stockbroking company ECM Libra Avenue, the Edge financial weekly reported.

(Source:Channel News Asia)

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Mahathir cheered
Sunday, August 13, 2006

He's given hero's welcome when he strikes at the seat of Abdullah Badawi's power

Reuters

Former Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad took his attack against Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to the seat of power, the ruling party, yesterday - and found plenty of support for his criticisms.

Members of UMNO, which dominates government and can make or break prime ministers, gave Mahathir a hero's welcome as he arrived to speak at a divisional party meeting at a golf club outside Kuala Lumpur.

More than 100 of the party faithful chanted "Hidup Mahathir" (Long live Mahathir) in Malay as the 80-year-old arrived for the meeting behind the wheel of a Porsche Cayenne sports utility with his driver in the passenger seat.

"For two years I've been quiet," Mahathir told the UMNO division, which had gone ahead and invited him to speak despite veiled warnings by the party's leadership not to do so.

"Now let me speak, a small chance to be heard. If you don't want to listen, you can always close your ears," he added before going on to recite his various criticisms of the government.

Mahathir, who stepped down after 22 years of power in late 2003, feels betrayed by his hand-chosen successor, Abdullah, because the latter has shelved several major projects that Mahathir had hoped would continue into his retirement.

Mahathir has accused the government of lacking "guts" and of selling out Malaysian sovereignty over a recent decision to scrap Mahathir's plan to build a bridge to neighbouring Singapore.

It was clear that many of the party rank-and-file who turned up to hear Mahathir were also not happy with the government.

"I don't believe in him any more," said elderly UMNO party member Noor Azmi, brandishing a photo of him with Abdullah. He said he was a distant uncle of the premier.

"Not only me, but the majority of the rakyat (common people) too. UMNO is more than just blood. It's about Islam, the Malay race and the country."

Mahathir's decision to take his criticisms into the heart of UMNO threatens to sow dissent and division within the ruling party at a time when Abdullah is widely expected to be gearing up for an early election, perhaps in the second half of next year.

There are no moves inside the party to dethrone Abdullah, but any grass-roots support for Mahathir's criticisms could pressure the prime minister to alter the course of fiscal policy and return to the Mahathir era of major state projects. (Reuters)

Meanwhile Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak reiterated his full backing for PM Abdullah yesterday, saying "I will not abandon ship."

He said he was amazed by the attitude of the prime minister and expressed his undivided support for Abdullah.

"I will be the best deputy possible as well as the best supporter of the prime minister," he said during a public function. "I will stand by him and weather the storm together until the end.

"Just because there is a storm brewing, don't think I will abandon the ship."

In other developments reported in malaysiakini:

* Mahathir asked government leaders to swear on the Quran together with him on whether the Malaysian government had made the offer of sand and airspace to Singapore.

* Mahathir also said he had no plan to form a splinter group of the party but would continue to pick on leaders who had gone astray.

* Former DPM Anwar Ibrahim said Mahathir's credibility was at stake if he did not name those cabinet ministers whom he claimed to be corrupt.
(Source:Malaysia Today Net)