Shadow Policy Committee

Penang Chief Minister and DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng will be holding his Chinese New Year Open House on 3 February 2011 (Thursday) from 10.00 am to 1.00 pm situated at the Penang International Sports Arena (PISA) Stadium. All party members, supporters and well-wishers are invited to this most auspicious event. Wishing all Gong Xi Fa Cai & Happy Chinese New Year. See you all there...

Majlis Rumah Terbuka Tahun Baru Cina 2011 DAP Pulau Pinang Tarikh: 11 Februari 2011 (Jumaat) Masa: 7.30 mlm - 10.00 mlm Tempat: St Anne's Hall, Bukit Mertajam Majlis Rumah Terbuka Tahun Baru Cina 2011 Kerajaan Negeri Pulau Pinang Tarikh: 6 Februari 2011 (Ahad) Masa: 6.00 ptg - 10.30 mlm Tempat: Kompleks Pasar Awam, Balik Pulau, P.Pinang Semua adalah dijemput hadir.

This Chinese New Year, return to Penang for a series of exciting traditional events beginning with the annual Kek Lok Si Lighting Ceremony of 10,000 lanterns on 29th January 2011 at 7pm. This celebration has been voted by VisitPenang readers as 'The Festival of Chinese New Year' with thousands of breathtaking lights sparkling in display. Next, join in with the celebration of festive Chinese New Year at our Penang Chief Minister's Chinese New Year Open House on the 1st Day of the Lunar Calendar, 3rd February 2011, at PISA from 10am till 1pm. Following that, the Penang Snake Temple will be celebrating the 'Chor Sor Kong' Deity Birthday Celebration on 8th February 2011. This celebration is conducted throughout the day and is held at the Snake Temple, Bayan Lepas. On 10th February 2011, witness as 'Thni Kong' or the Heavenly God's Birthday Celebration is conducted at the Chew Jetty, Weld Quay from 9pm till the very next morning. And DO-NOT-MISS the all-day C...

By Lim Guan Eng The 4 PR states of Penang, Selangor, Kedah and Kelantan have beat the other 10 BN states by attracting RM25 billion in investments comprising 53% of Malaysia's total investments of RM47.2 billion in 2010. For the first time in history, Penang is now the new champion of investments in Malaysia, coming out top in 2010. Penang replaced the previous 2009 champion Sarawak by recording RM 12.2 billion in 2010 as compared to Sarawak RM3.9 billion. Penang was No. 4 in 2009 with RM 2.1 billion but shot up 5 times to No.1. On the other hand Sarawak went down from No.1 in 2009 with RM 8.5 billion to No. 4 with RM3.9 billion in 2010. Penang's success in drawing in RM12.2 billion is an extraordinary vote of confidence by both foreign and local investors in the PR state government of Penang. The No.2 state after Penang is another PR state of Selangor with RM 10.6 billion in investments. In fact the 4 PR states of Penang, Selangor, Kedah and Kelantan combined comprise RM 25 bi...

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal A year ago, Zairil Khir Johari’s only association with politics would be his father — the late Tan Sri Mohd Khir Johari, Umno stalwart, former education minister and who served three prime ministers including the late Tunku Abdul Rahman. Over the past few months, however, Zairil’s name has been the talk of the town, namely through opposition blogs as well as anti-Pakatan Rakyat (PR) blogs over his appearance at the coalition’s last convention in Kepala Batas, where he was a guest speaker. His retractors have accused him of being a “traitor” and “anti-Malay” for abandoning his late father’s party and choosing to become a part of the DAP — a party which is still feared by many Malays and considered to be pro-Chinese due to its majority Chinese membership. The DAP has, however, of late extended an olive branch to Malays in its bid to shake off “misconceptions” about the party, and Zairil is seen as an example of the party’s efforts. Zairil said he chose the DAP ov...

By Debra Chong In Penang, the spats between the ruling Pakatan Rakyat (PR) state government and its rival Barisan Nasional (BN) faction have grown more strident and public as Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak mulls calling for the 13th general elections this year. Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng today called his predecessor, Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon, irresponsible for blaming problems faced during the state BN’s recent camp at the Tropical Island Resort (TIR) at Pulau Jerejak on the new administration. Pulau Jerejak is a 362-hectare island off the eastern coast of Penang, which once served as a penal and leper colony. “He is not satisfied because there was no key to the boat and there was a snake in the storeroom,” Lim said in a media statement today, referring to the Gerakan president and state BN chief. The DAP secretary-general said Koh should not blame PR because the jetty at Bayan Bay and Pulau Jerejak was managed by the resort company, which was granted the project by the prev...

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng touted today his administration as proof that Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) 100-day promises would not bankrupt government coffers. He said that since PR took over Penang in 2008, it had executed various welfare programmes but still achieved record budget surpluses. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had scoffed at PR’s 100-day reform programme, saying it was “too good to be true.” But Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim defended the plan today, stating that it would only cost RM19 billion that would come from cutting out corruption. Lim echoed this by claiming that Penang had hit a record RM88 million surplus in 2008 and RM77 million in 2009 through “the dividends of anti-corruption” measures. At a press conference this morning, he pointed out that the state’s administration had been praised by both Transparency International and the Auditor-General who had also rated Penang as the best managed state. The DAP secretary-general also said that it was...

By Lim Kit Siang Utusan Malaysia’s daily staple of lies and falsehoods to stoke communal poison and hatred, sowing distrust and national disunity, is the greatest disservice to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia slogan and nation-building. Mingguan Malaysia today is again at its anti-national worst with its daily diet of lies and falsehoods to poison the political system and undermine the nation-building process when it made the completely wild and baseless charge in insinuating in its editorial that DAP is working towards the goal of making Malaysia a republic and the abolition of the system of Malay rulers. In its Sunday editorial “Iktibar kemelut Selangor” by Awang Selamat, Mingguan Malaysia insinuated that the lesson to be learnt from the Selangor crisis is that Malaysia will end up a republic if PKR and DAP’s “rule of Selangor continues”, viz: “Tetapi iktibar daripada kemelut di Selangor itu ialah jika PKR dan DAP memerintah, lagi banyak berlaku kemudaratan. Yang pa...

從去年3月到今年9月，已經有30萬大馬人移民他國； 其中20萬人是今年1月到8月出走的數目。 From March 2008 thru September 2009, a total of 300,000 Malaysian migrated to other countries, among them 200,000 left between Jan - Aug 2009. (in 8 months) 累積下來，已經有超過200萬大馬人移民，接近今天印尼外勞在大馬的人口。 Cummulatively, 2 million Malaysians migrated, this figure is close to the number of Indonesian workers in Malaysia today. 不同的是，移居他國的大馬人，多是專業人士、中產階級。 The difference are, those migrated are mostly professional and middle class people. 他們有很多出走的理由，追求事業發展，為了孩子前途，尋找個人更大空間......， 概括一句：對馬來西亞失望。 They have many reasons to leave: pursue career development, for the future of their children, in search of better life and environment... In one sentence, they lost hope of Malaysia . 50年前，大家說，馬來西亞真好，好過香港，甚至日本。 50 years ago people said: Malaysia is very good, better than Hong Kong and even Japan . 30年前，大家說，馬來西亞還不錯，比得上韓國、台灣（不提香港和日本了）。 30 years ago people said: Malaysia is not bad, comparable to S. Korea and Taiwan . (No mention of Hong Kong and Japan any more). 20年前，大家...

By Clara Chooi The Najib administration’s latest “Christmas blunder” has religious leaders in a mad scramble to explain to Christians that the church had not bowed to a directive to remove religious symbols during a Christmas party a fortnight ago. The Malaysian Insider understands that over the weekend, Catholic priests were forced to address the issue as it had caused an uproar among parishioners who questioned why the church had adhered to such “overzealous” requests, allegedly made by the prime minister’s aide. But the leaders also agreed that despite their attempts at defusing the situation, the “damage has already been done”, resulting in a rekindling of the same tension that rose during last year’s “Allah” controversy. Father Simon Labrooy, who spoke on the issue during two separate masses, predicted that the Christian community’s anger was not likely to dissipate until the premier publicly clarified his stand. He agreed that the administration, now mulling snap polls, would enc...

Utusan Malaysia today raised fears of Selangor joining Singapore as another “country belonging to China outside mainland China” over the ‘state secretary’ tussle between the state and Putrajaya. Assistant editor-in-chief Zaini Hassan’s column called on Malays to “have the same zeal as China, India and Israel” to “defend their sovereignty in governing the country” after seeing Pakatan Rakyat (PR) reject the choice of the federally-controlled Public Services Department (PSD), Datuk Mohamed Khusrin Munawi, as the new state secretary. “Do we Malays (already so few in the world) want to allow another country belonging to China or India outside their own lands? It should be enough with Singapore (a country belonging to China outside mainland China). Do we also want to give away this homeland?” he wrote, referring to Selangor. Zaini cited the Hans in China and the Hindus in India who enjoyed supremacy in their countries as they formed the majority population. “The People’s Republic of China w...