India, Malaysia in comprehensive economic pact

India, Malaysia in comprehensive economic pact
October 27th, 2010

Kuala Lumpur: India and Malaysia on Wednesday announced completion of negotiations on the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), saying it will significantly transform their bilateral engagement.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Malaysian counterpart Najib Tun Razak said the agreement will be signed by January 31, 2011, and come into force July 1.

Razak said the two countries had concluded 'very productive' bilateral discussions.

He told a joint news conference that when he visited New Delhi in January this year, his desire was to make Manmohan Singh's return trip 'equally significant and historic'.

He called CECA a corner stone of India-Malaysia relations and said this will unleash tremendous potential in trade, investment and other economic linkages.

The Malaysian leader described himself as a great admirer of Manmohan Singh for 'transforming India into an economic powerhouse'.

He said they also discussed military cooperation, maritime security, terrorism, higher education, and visa issues.

Manmohan Singh said his discussions in Malaysia had laid the basis for a multifaceted partnership between the two countries.

He said CECA 'will transform our economic engagement in a very substantive way'.

India and Malaysia also signed six agreements. These included, one on traditional medicine, cooperation in services, cooperation in tourism and a cultural exchange programme.

Manmohan Singh arrived here on Tuesday on the second leg of a three nation Asia tour that has already taken him to Japan. He leaves here on Thursday for Vietnam, where he will take part in the India-ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit.

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/international/india-malaysia-comprehensive-economic-pact-028

Kampung Baru Malays missing out on Warisan project, says FT delegate

Kampung Baru Malays missing out on Warisan project, says FT delegate
Saturday October 23, 2010

THE Malays in Kuala Lumpur missed a golden opportunity to get directly involved in the RM5bil Warisan Merdeka project when the Govern-ment decided to build it near Stadium Merdeka.

They missed out because not many Malays owned land near the stadium, said Federal Territories delegate Johari Abdul Ghani.

He felt that Kampung Baru would have been a better location for the huge project as nearly 60ha of land there would have been owned by Malays.

“I am quite sure the Kampung Baru residents would have been happy to take part in such a development project as it offers numerous benefits, including better land appreciation,” he said, when debating the motion on economy at the Umno assembly.

The Warisan Merdeka project is a massive urbanisation project centred on a 100-storey building to be developed by national investment corporation, Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) and close to a heritage enclave that include Stadium Merdeka and Stadium Negara.

Johari regretted that PNB had overlooked the prospect of getting the direct involvement of the Malays by not considering Kampung Baru as the project site.

Pahang representative Suhaimi Sulong raised the issue of providing graduates with relevant skills for the country’s future needs and urged the Government to review the current education system.

He claimed more than half of local university graduates were jobless as they only had paper qualifications while most employers prefered those with skills.

Johor delegate Ayub Jamil reminded the Government to follow up with affirmative action on all “transformation” initiatives that it had announced.

“There had been far too many plans and debates in the past – but the implementation had been disappointing.

“Only with real action can we succeed,” he said.

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/10/23/nation/7286002&sec=nation

Malaysia is a top ten tourism market for India

Malaysia is a top ten tourism market for India

SINGAPORE: Malaysia is now one of the top ten markets providing tourism traffic to India.

Appreciating this, India is launching an aggressive campaign to highlight features of interest to Malaysians, according to the Singapore-based Government of India Tourism Office.

The Director, Rajesh Talwar, said:" Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand are India's key markets in Southeast Asia."

India recorded some 325,000 visitors from the Asean region last year. Malaysia accounted for 117,000 tourists, followed by Singapore with 96,000 and Thailand with 64,000.

Telwar said his office had staged road shows in Kuala Lumpur in June and Penang in July.

A road would be held soon in Kuching and another in Johor Baru. - Bernama

Thousands of Indonesian illegal workers live in uncertainty in Malaysia

Thousands of Indonesian illegal workers live in uncertainty in Malaysia

News Desk
The Jakarta Post
Publication Date : 23-10-2010


An estimated 10,000 illegal workers from Indonesia have lived in uncertainty in Malaysia as they have no official documents and records to enter and work in the neighbouring country, Indonesiand deputy speaker of the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Legislative Council Anselmus Tallo said on Friday (October 22).

"The workers who mostly come from East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) live in Setiawan District of Perak Malaysia and have no official records and documents so that they are categorised as illegal workers," Anselmus said in Kupang as quoted by the state Antara news agency.

Anselmus made the remarks after a missionary from Chinese Metodhist Church Manjung Malaysia, Grace Lee, together with Pastor Otniel Dani Liu and missionaries of Jakarta Christian Church (GKJ) visited the council to testify about the condition of the Nusa Tenggara people who are working illegally in Malaysia in front of the councillors.

The Malaysian missionaries often helped the illegal workers in the Malaysian forests, especially those who received harassment that caused them to suffer from illnesses and even to die, Anselmus said.

In front of the councillors, Grace Lee displayed videos and photographs of the handling of the illegal workers, especially from NTT, in the Malaysian forests.

The documentations depicted the efforts of Grace Lee in helping the workers. There were a number of the workers, who had to be amputated and operated as well. Aside of handling the injured, Grace Lee also took care of the dead workers.

One of the illegal workers, Ambros Seran, who was injured in an accident, was brought back to NTT. His right arm had to be amputated as he fell down from a speeding motorcycle when he was chased by the Malaysian police.

A GKJ missionary, Rudolf Latuihamalo, asked the councillors and NTT administration to give assurance to the job seekers to properly process requirements to become migrant workers overseas.

"Becoming illegal workers is very risky, because the employers tend to be irresponsible," Rudolf said.

The workers, however, choose to work illegally in Malaysia due to the difficult and arduous procedures in the administration and registration processing, he said, adding that the cost for passport administration alone could reach 2 million rupiah to 3 million rupiah each.

They mostly lived in the camps deep in the Malaysian forests, he added.

Rebates for Touch N Go and Tagged Card Users

Rebates for Touch N Go and Tagged Card Users

For sharing.....


Hi ALL - Good News and good info. for sharing by all. If u travel quite a bit using the touch and go card maybe u can check up your rebates the need time you travel along the tolled highways.....


Recently I was talking to a friend, who travels alot during the course of the business. He told me out of curiousity, he heard about the rebates toll users are entitled to. So he asked the person at the toll office (where you can top up your Touch N Go (like those in Sg Besi, Ayer Keroh, Sg Buloh, Bkt Raja and the one entering Shah Alam) about the rebate when he went there for a top up. She told him that the rebates you have accumulated need to be credited to your Touch N Go "within" 6 months. Otherwise, the rebates will be extinguish ( that is "kaput").if not credited to your Touch N Go within this period. To his surprise, he got a rebate of RM468.

My mate told me since I always travel down to Singapore regularly, I should go and check it out what rebates I have and do it fast. So, this morning, on my way to Melaka, I stopped at Ayer Keroh toll to check my rebates. To my surprise, I have got RM58 and this amount was transferred to top up my Touch N Go card. What a pleasant surprise. Imagine, if I had heard about it earlier, I could have checked it earlier last year when I had to drive down to Singapore once every fortnight

So, for those of you who use the Tagged or Touch N Go card, go and check it out. Imagine the millions of $$$ Touch N Go operators have saved from giving out the rebates to deserving customers. Remember,you can only claim the rebates at the Toll area where you can top up your card. You cant get the rebates done when you top up your Touch N Go card in other places like ATM Machine, Bank, online, 7 Eleven etc... MUST BE AT TOLL Centre.

Touch N Go did announced it in the newspapers very briefly but little info or brochures were given out for obvious reasons. Wouldnt you do the same if you were the operator huh?

“Bloggers to practise social responsiblity”

“Bloggers to practise social responsiblity”

Blogging in Malaysia: what bloggers should know
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h1RzCqSJr0&feature=player_embedded

The dangers of blogging in Malaysia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pPK430HlWc&feature=related


Rocky Bru on Blogging in Malaysia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krmQ6HaLjmk&feature=related

Law of Defamation

Malaysian blogger, Jeff Ooi was sued by NST for defamation in mid of January 2007.

Therefore, I would think it is important to have some basic understanding of the law of defamation in Malaysia.

What is defamation?

To put it in simple term, defamation occurs when a person expresses words that may lower another person’s reputation in the eyes of the public.

There are two types of defamation in Malaysia: libel and slander.

Libel is when such words are expressed in a permanent form which is usually visible to the eye, like in a book, e-mail or picture.

Slander is when such words are expressed in a temporary form, usually when spoken or made by body movements.


What are the laws governing defamation?

In civil cases of defamation, when a private person sues another private person for defamation, the Defamation Act 1957 is applicable.

In criminal cases of defamation, when the state prosecutes a private person for defamation, Section 499 to Section 502 of the Penal Code is applicable.

What is the punishment if you are held guilty of defamation?

Both libel and slander are civil and criminal offences. Thus, a person who is guilty of libel or slander may be sued in court, and also face jail sentence.

In civil cases, the person so defamed will normally sue the maker of the defamatory words for compensation. The amount of the compensation depends on the damage caused to the reputation of the person suing.

In criminal cases, the punishment for defamation is a jail sentence for a maximum of two years, or a fine, or a combination of a jail sentence and a fine [Section 500-502 Penal Code].

We will look at the creteria costituting defamation in my next post.

So please be careful with your comments in my blog….hahahah! (Just joking)



http://www.laweddie.com/wordpress/defamation-law-in-malaysia/