MANILA: Human trafficking syndicates are growing and becoming more organised helped by technology, Southeast Asian law-enforcement experts heard Thursday as they sought ways to tackle the issue together.Experts from the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations met here to try to work out either a binding convention on human trafficking or a less stringent regional plan of action to enable ASEAN to act in unison.
"Trafficking in persons used to be number three (crime). Now, it has overtaken the (illegal) arms trade and it is number two globally," Philippine justice undersecretary Jose Salazar said as the talks got under way.
Salazar, who heads Manila's anti-trafficking task force, said human trafficking syndicates were expanding worldwide, helped by the Internet and other modern advances.
"They are more organised. They have the resources. They have been using the advances in technology for themselves," he said.
While some countries want an ASEAN convention against human trafficking, there are also fears that such a convention could infringe on the laws of individual nations.
Under the regional plan of action, members would not be obliged to follow all the provisions but would merely be asked to cooperate, he said.
The recommendations of the experts meeting here will be presented to ASEAN senior officials meeting in Vietnam later this year, he added.
The Philippines, which has almost 10 million citizens working overseas, was particularly vulnerable to human trafficking with many women going abroad for legitimate jobs only to be forced into prostitution, he said.
Figures for the number of people trafficked in ASEAN were being compiled but were not immediately available, he added.
He cited International Labour Organisation figures putting the number of people worldwide in forced labour at 20.9 million -- 5.5 million of them children.
Aside from the Philippines, ASEAN includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
ASEAN members have been criticised for not doing enough to fight human trafficking even though many of them send labourers overseas and some of them rely on imported workers.
Thailand
Human trafficking syndicates growing
List of GE13 foreign observers to be finalised this week
List of GE13 foreign observers to be finalised this week
JOHOR BAHARU — The list of foreign observers for the 13th general election on May 5 is expected to be finalised within this week, according to the Election Commission (EC) deputy chairman, Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar.
He said the countries invited to observe Malaysia’s general election process were Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand and the Philippines, as well as representatives from the Asean Secretariat.
“These countries and the secretariat will be sending seven representatives each, with three of them to be given the status of official guests of Malaysia,” he said after visiting the polling centres in the Gelang Patah parliamentary constituency today.
Wan Ahmad said there were countries that requested to send 40 observers each but the EC had set the number at seven.
He also reminded all quarters not to wear any piece of clothing and headgear with their party logo or symbol on polling day.
“However, the 1Malaysia can be used as it is not political in nature but the tagline of the ruling BN government’s administration,” he said.-BERNAMA-
Source: MOLE
Petronas Dagangan allocates RM700 mln for Capex this year
Petronas Dagangan allocates RM700 mln for Capex this year
KUALA LUMPUR– Petronas Dagangan Bhd (PDB) has allocated about RM700 million for capital expenditure (capex) this year, to better position itself to execute strategies for its retail, commercial, liquefied petroleum gas and lubricant segments, including its regional businesses.
Chairman Datuk Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin said about RM400 million would be for the retail business.
“The company is focused on aggressively growing its market share through network expansion, cutting-edge product technology and customer engagement programmes,” he told a media briefing after the group’s annual general meeting here today.
PDB is the principal domestic marketing arm of the national oil company, Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), which holds 69.86 per cent equity.
Wan Zulkiflee said another RM100 million would be invested in the domestic operations where 60 new Petronas stations will be opened this year.
“We need to invest on domestic operations as some of the group’s assets are more than 20 years old,” he said.
He said the remaining RM200 million would be invested in the Philippines’ infrastructure business.
He said it was an achievement for PDB to have a presence in Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines, following the recent acquisition.
“We are working on the integration plan of our international subsidiaries which will take around six to 12 months.
“I would expect in the next five years, these subsidiaries will contribute about five to eight per cent the our net income,” he said.
PDB’s revenue for financial year ended Dec 31, 2012, rose by RM864.5 million to RM29.515 billion, attributed by the increase in sales volume.
Its pre-tax profit, however, fell by RM49.3 million to RM1.165 billion as compared to the preceding year.
It said the decrease was due to lower gross profit resulting from the fluctuation of crude oil prices throughout the year and increase in operating expenditure. — BERNAMA
Source: MOLE
Strong growth in Asia but overheating a risk
SINGAPORE: East Asian and Pacific economies will grow 7.8 per cent this year on robust domestic demand, the World Bank said Monday, but it warned countries to guard against overheating in credit and asset prices.The forecast is up from 7.5 per cent last year, but the bank said in its latest East Asia and Pacific Update report that expansion would then drop to 7.6 per cent next year.
Domestic demand will underpin the rise after the region contributed 40 per cent of global growth last year.
Global risks arising from the eurozone debt crisis and US fiscal showdown have abated and there are signs of an economic turnaround in advanced economies, which bodes well for Asia's exports, the bank added.
However, one emerging issue is the risk of overheating in some of the region's larger economies, it said.
Near-zero interest rates and easy monetary policies in the US, the European Union and Japan have led to a massive exodus of money from these countries into emerging markets, including those in Asia, where they can get higher returns.
The inflow has boosted property and stock prices but there are fears of an asset bubble that could collapse once the funds are withdrawn as quickly as they came in.
Combined with the funds influx, domestic stimulus measures -- including low interest rates -- implemented by governments to boost demand as exports waned have led to higher levels of debt and inflation.
"Continued demand-boosting measures may now be counter-productive as it could add to inflationary pressure," said Bert Hofman, the bank's chief regional economist.
"A strong rebound in capital inflows to the region induced by protracted rounds of quantitative easing in the US, EU and Japan, may amplify credit and asset price risks," he added.
Gross capital flows into the region amounted to $46.8 billion in the first three months of this year, up 86.3 per cent from a year ago, the bank said.
It also said that in the same period the amount of cash that found its way into Asian stock markets more than doubled year on year to $13.2 billion from $5.6 billion.
"The risk of an asset boom in the markets in which global liquidity spills over is emerging, with asset valuations moving ahead of fundamentals and possibly a correction down the road," the bank said.
"Stock market indices have surged by 56 per cent in the Philippines and 48 per cent in Thailand in the past 14 months alone," it noted.
Debt accumulation by governments, companies and households has also increased, the bank said.
The bank urged governments in the region to channel the funds to productive activities by investing the money in infrastructure and human capital to sustain high growth.
"Beyond raising the level and quality of investment, the region must regain its focus on improving productivity," the bank said.
It urged policymakers to be prepared to withdraw the domestic stimulus measures as the global economy recovers.
Friends in S’pore start own ‘return to vote’ campaign
Several persons were spotted roving around the Jurong East MRT station in Singapore yesterday carrying placards urging Malaysians to return to their hometowns to vote.
One onlooker took a photograph of the scene and posted it onFacebook, where it went viral with over 1,800 ‘shares’ in just 17 hours.
This turned out to be part of a private initiative of a group of about 20 Malaysian expatriates working or studying on the island nation, whom, despite fears of reprisal from Singaporean authorities, said “it did not feel right” to do nothing ahead of the looming election.
The group’s founder, who asked only to be identified as ‘Ah Yin’, said she was inspired by another photograph that went viral onFacebook several days ago, which featured a man wearing Himpunan Hijau’s signature green T-shirt (right) and holding up a placard urging Malaysians to return to vote.
“I saw the photo and asked my friends in Singapore, ‘Do we want to do this?’ and they said ‘Why not?’ so it accidentally turned into this,” she said when contacted by Malaysiakini today.
She said the movement and its 20-odd participants move in small groups of about two or three in order to avoid drawing the attention of Singaporean authorities and their restrictive laws on political expression.
In addition, the campaign’s message was limited to urging Malaysians to return to vote instead of anything that may be perceived as more provocative.
‘Singapore gov’t afraid of anti-establishment sentiments’
“They (Singaporean government) are afraid that the anti-establishment sentiments would spread there from Malaysia,” she claimed, adding that her group would avoid confrontation with the police because they still hope to make a living there.
She said Jurong East MRT station was picked as the venue for the first day of their campaign because it was a major interchange where many Malaysians transit to catch a bus ride across the Johor Straits after work.
Regardless, their campaign did not start smoothly. Within 20 minutes of starting at about 4pm yesterday, a Singaporean angrily confronted her and a friend and told them to take their activism back to Malaysia.
“He told us to leave immediately. We tried to speak to him but he wouldn’t listen at all and just kept scolding and scolding.
“We said to him that we are showing these (placards) to fellow Malaysians and not Singaporeans, but he won’t listen. He told us that we can’t do this in Singapore. Do what? It is not (a serious offence like) murder or arson,” she claimed.
The man even brandished his phone and threatened to call the police, and when she gave up and adjourned to a coffee shop for a drink, the man followed her there and only left some time afterwards.
However, she told Malaysiakini that other batches of the group’s activists who arrived later were able to campaign freely without interference.
She also said that the campaign was her own initiative and is not affiliated to the Jom Balik Undi campaign, which also calls for Malaysian expatriates to cast their votes at home.
The latter campaign also encourages Malaysian expatriates to take photos of themselves posing with a placard urging Malaysians to vote, and then post the photos on Facebook.
Alternate video sympathetic to BN
The two are just several of many separate online initiatives trying to persuade some 700,000 Malaysians abroad to vote on the 13th general election, slated for May 5.
One video posted on YouTube on April 10 drew over 28,000 viewers and over 1,000 ‘Likes’ in two days.
The video, about one minute and 40 seconds long, narrates one undergraduate student’s grievances with the status quo and her determination to do her part to change it.
On the same day, BN supporters edited the video and uploaded analternate version of it that is sympathetic of the ruling coalition.
Where the narrator of the original version had lamented, “many friends have left the country for better opportunities,” the altered version featured dubbed audio and swapped subtitles that say, “many friends are returning to help the country develop.”
As of writing, the doctored video has some 8,000 views and over 900 ‘Dislikes’.
Meanwhile, Chinese-language daily Nanyang Siang Pau reported yesterday that within a day of the polling date being announced, all bus tickets from Singapore to Ipoh have been sold out.
The article says that its reporters have surveyed three express bus companies, all of which were quoted saying that they have increased the number of trips to Ipoh.
However, the tickets were “selling out faster than Chinese New Year” and they could not cope with demand.
The city of Ipoh is divided between the parliamentary constituencies of Ipoh Timor and Ipoh Barat. Both are Chinese-majority seats with 82 percent and 65 percent of the population being Chinese Malaysians, respectively.
Budget airline AirAsia X is also running a promotional campaign where voters can get cheaper flights home to vote.
Although the Election Commission (EC) has allowed more Malaysia’s abroad to cast postal votes, the facility is not extended to Malaysians based in southern Thailand, Singapore, Brunei and Kalimantan.
Some expatriates have also complained that they were unable to register as postal voters because the EC’s website wasinaccessible, while the EC said there would be no extension of the deadline.
“I advise those who have failed to register before the deadline to look to themselves and ask why it happened that way, and return home to vote,” EC chief Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof (left) had said.
Short URL: http://www.freemalaysiakini2.com/?p=75718
on Apr 12 2013. Filed under News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
Friends in S’pore start own ‘return to vote’ campaign
Several persons were spotted roving around the Jurong East MRT station in Singapore yesterday carrying placards urging Malaysians to return to their hometowns to vote.
One onlooker took a photograph of the scene and posted it onFacebook, where it went viral with over 1,800 ‘shares’ in just 17 hours.
This turned out to be part of a private initiative of a group of about 20 Malaysian expatriates working or studying on the island nation, whom, despite fears of reprisal from Singaporean authorities, said “it did not feel right” to do nothing ahead of the looming election.
The group’s founder, who asked only to be identified as ‘Ah Yin’, said she was inspired by another photograph that went viral onFacebook several days ago, which featured a man wearing Himpunan Hijau’s signature green T-shirt (right) and holding up a placard urging Malaysians to return to vote.
“I saw the photo and asked my friends in Singapore, ‘Do we want to do this?’ and they said ‘Why not?’ so it accidentally turned into this,” she said when contacted by Malaysiakini today.
She said the movement and its 20-odd participants move in small groups of about two or three in order to avoid drawing the attention of Singaporean authorities and their restrictive laws on political expression.
In addition, the campaign’s message was limited to urging Malaysians to return to vote instead of anything that may be perceived as more provocative.
‘Singapore gov’t afraid of anti-establishment sentiments’
“They (Singaporean government) are afraid that the anti-establishment sentiments would spread there from Malaysia,” she claimed, adding that her group would avoid confrontation with the police because they still hope to make a living there.
She said Jurong East MRT station was picked as the venue for the first day of their campaign because it was a major interchange where many Malaysians transit to catch a bus ride across the Johor Straits after work.
Regardless, their campaign did not start smoothly. Within 20 minutes of starting at about 4pm yesterday, a Singaporean angrily confronted her and a friend and told them to take their activism back to Malaysia.
“He told us to leave immediately. We tried to speak to him but he wouldn’t listen at all and just kept scolding and scolding.
“We said to him that we are showing these (placards) to fellow Malaysians and not Singaporeans, but he won’t listen. He told us that we can’t do this in Singapore. Do what? It is not (a serious offence like) murder or arson,” she claimed.
The man even brandished his phone and threatened to call the police, and when she gave up and adjourned to a coffee shop for a drink, the man followed her there and only left some time afterwards.
However, she told Malaysiakini that other batches of the group’s activists who arrived later were able to campaign freely without interference.
She also said that the campaign was her own initiative and is not affiliated to the Jom Balik Undi campaign, which also calls for Malaysian expatriates to cast their votes at home.
The latter campaign also encourages Malaysian expatriates to take photos of themselves posing with a placard urging Malaysians to vote, and then post the photos on Facebook.
Alternate video sympathetic to BN
The two are just several of many separate online initiatives trying to persuade some 700,000 Malaysians abroad to vote on the 13th general election, slated for May 5.
One video posted on YouTube on April 10 drew over 28,000 viewers and over 1,000 ‘Likes’ in two days.
The video, about one minute and 40 seconds long, narrates one undergraduate student’s grievances with the status quo and her determination to do her part to change it.
On the same day, BN supporters edited the video and uploaded analternate version of it that is sympathetic of the ruling coalition.
Where the narrator of the original version had lamented, “many friends have left the country for better opportunities,” the altered version featured dubbed audio and swapped subtitles that say, “many friends are returning to help the country develop.”
As of writing, the doctored video has some 8,000 views and over 900 ‘Dislikes’.
Meanwhile, Chinese-language daily Nanyang Siang Pau reported yesterday that within a day of the polling date being announced, all bus tickets from Singapore to Ipoh have been sold out.
The article says that its reporters have surveyed three express bus companies, all of which were quoted saying that they have increased the number of trips to Ipoh.
However, the tickets were “selling out faster than Chinese New Year” and they could not cope with demand.
The city of Ipoh is divided between the parliamentary constituencies of Ipoh Timor and Ipoh Barat. Both are Chinese-majority seats with 82 percent and 65 percent of the population being Chinese Malaysians, respectively.
Budget airline AirAsia X is also running a promotional campaign where voters can get cheaper flights home to vote.
Although the Election Commission (EC) has allowed more Malaysia’s abroad to cast postal votes, the facility is not extended to Malaysians based in southern Thailand, Singapore, Brunei and Kalimantan.
Some expatriates have also complained that they were unable to register as postal voters because the EC’s website wasinaccessible, while the EC said there would be no extension of the deadline.
“I advise those who have failed to register before the deadline to look to themselves and ask why it happened that way, and return home to vote,” EC chief Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof (left) had said.
Short URL: http://www.freemalaysiakini2.com/?p=75718
on Apr 12 2013. Filed under News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
Friends in S’pore start own ‘return to vote’ campaign
Several persons were spotted roving around the Jurong East MRT station in Singapore yesterday carrying placards urging Malaysians to return to their hometowns to vote.
One onlooker took a photograph of the scene and posted it onFacebook, where it went viral with over 1,800 ‘shares’ in just 17 hours.
This turned out to be part of a private initiative of a group of about 20 Malaysian expatriates working or studying on the island nation, whom, despite fears of reprisal from Singaporean authorities, said “it did not feel right” to do nothing ahead of the looming election.
The group’s founder, who asked only to be identified as ‘Ah Yin’, said she was inspired by another photograph that went viral onFacebook several days ago, which featured a man wearing Himpunan Hijau’s signature green T-shirt (right) and holding up a placard urging Malaysians to return to vote.
“I saw the photo and asked my friends in Singapore, ‘Do we want to do this?’ and they said ‘Why not?’ so it accidentally turned into this,” she said when contacted by Malaysiakini today.
She said the movement and its 20-odd participants move in small groups of about two or three in order to avoid drawing the attention of Singaporean authorities and their restrictive laws on political expression.
In addition, the campaign’s message was limited to urging Malaysians to return to vote instead of anything that may be perceived as more provocative.
‘Singapore gov’t afraid of anti-establishment sentiments’
“They (Singaporean government) are afraid that the anti-establishment sentiments would spread there from Malaysia,” she claimed, adding that her group would avoid confrontation with the police because they still hope to make a living there.
She said Jurong East MRT station was picked as the venue for the first day of their campaign because it was a major interchange where many Malaysians transit to catch a bus ride across the Johor Straits after work.
Regardless, their campaign did not start smoothly. Within 20 minutes of starting at about 4pm yesterday, a Singaporean angrily confronted her and a friend and told them to take their activism back to Malaysia.
“He told us to leave immediately. We tried to speak to him but he wouldn’t listen at all and just kept scolding and scolding.
“We said to him that we are showing these (placards) to fellow Malaysians and not Singaporeans, but he won’t listen. He told us that we can’t do this in Singapore. Do what? It is not (a serious offence like) murder or arson,” she claimed.
The man even brandished his phone and threatened to call the police, and when she gave up and adjourned to a coffee shop for a drink, the man followed her there and only left some time afterwards.
However, she told Malaysiakini that other batches of the group’s activists who arrived later were able to campaign freely without interference.
She also said that the campaign was her own initiative and is not affiliated to the Jom Balik Undi campaign, which also calls for Malaysian expatriates to cast their votes at home.
The latter campaign also encourages Malaysian expatriates to take photos of themselves posing with a placard urging Malaysians to vote, and then post the photos on Facebook.
Alternate video sympathetic to BN
The two are just several of many separate online initiatives trying to persuade some 700,000 Malaysians abroad to vote on the 13th general election, slated for May 5.
One video posted on YouTube on April 10 drew over 28,000 viewers and over 1,000 ‘Likes’ in two days.
The video, about one minute and 40 seconds long, narrates one undergraduate student’s grievances with the status quo and her determination to do her part to change it.
On the same day, BN supporters edited the video and uploaded analternate version of it that is sympathetic of the ruling coalition.
Where the narrator of the original version had lamented, “many friends have left the country for better opportunities,” the altered version featured dubbed audio and swapped subtitles that say, “many friends are returning to help the country develop.”
As of writing, the doctored video has some 8,000 views and over 900 ‘Dislikes’.
Meanwhile, Chinese-language daily Nanyang Siang Pau reported yesterday that within a day of the polling date being announced, all bus tickets from Singapore to Ipoh have been sold out.
The article says that its reporters have surveyed three express bus companies, all of which were quoted saying that they have increased the number of trips to Ipoh.
However, the tickets were “selling out faster than Chinese New Year” and they could not cope with demand.
The city of Ipoh is divided between the parliamentary constituencies of Ipoh Timor and Ipoh Barat. Both are Chinese-majority seats with 82 percent and 65 percent of the population being Chinese Malaysians, respectively.
Budget airline AirAsia X is also running a promotional campaign where voters can get cheaper flights home to vote.
Although the Election Commission (EC) has allowed more Malaysia’s abroad to cast postal votes, the facility is not extended to Malaysians based in southern Thailand, Singapore, Brunei and Kalimantan.
Some expatriates have also complained that they were unable to register as postal voters because the EC’s website wasinaccessible, while the EC said there would be no extension of the deadline.
“I advise those who have failed to register before the deadline to look to themselves and ask why it happened that way, and return home to vote,” EC chief Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof (left) had said.
Short URL: http://www.freemalaysiakini2.com/?p=75718
on Apr 12 2013. Filed under News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
Friends in S’pore start own ‘return to vote’ campaign
Several persons were spotted roving around the Jurong East MRT station in Singapore yesterday carrying placards urging Malaysians to return to their hometowns to vote.
One onlooker took a photograph of the scene and posted it onFacebook, where it went viral with over 1,800 ‘shares’ in just 17 hours.
This turned out to be part of a private initiative of a group of about 20 Malaysian expatriates working or studying on the island nation, whom, despite fears of reprisal from Singaporean authorities, said “it did not feel right” to do nothing ahead of the looming election.
The group’s founder, who asked only to be identified as ‘Ah Yin’, said she was inspired by another photograph that went viral onFacebook several days ago, which featured a man wearing Himpunan Hijau’s signature green T-shirt (right) and holding up a placard urging Malaysians to return to vote.
“I saw the photo and asked my friends in Singapore, ‘Do we want to do this?’ and they said ‘Why not?’ so it accidentally turned into this,” she said when contacted by Malaysiakini today.
She said the movement and its 20-odd participants move in small groups of about two or three in order to avoid drawing the attention of Singaporean authorities and their restrictive laws on political expression.
In addition, the campaign’s message was limited to urging Malaysians to return to vote instead of anything that may be perceived as more provocative.
‘Singapore gov’t afraid of anti-establishment sentiments’
“They (Singaporean government) are afraid that the anti-establishment sentiments would spread there from Malaysia,” she claimed, adding that her group would avoid confrontation with the police because they still hope to make a living there.
She said Jurong East MRT station was picked as the venue for the first day of their campaign because it was a major interchange where many Malaysians transit to catch a bus ride across the Johor Straits after work.
Regardless, their campaign did not start smoothly. Within 20 minutes of starting at about 4pm yesterday, a Singaporean angrily confronted her and a friend and told them to take their activism back to Malaysia.
“He told us to leave immediately. We tried to speak to him but he wouldn’t listen at all and just kept scolding and scolding.
“We said to him that we are showing these (placards) to fellow Malaysians and not Singaporeans, but he won’t listen. He told us that we can’t do this in Singapore. Do what? It is not (a serious offence like) murder or arson,” she claimed.
The man even brandished his phone and threatened to call the police, and when she gave up and adjourned to a coffee shop for a drink, the man followed her there and only left some time afterwards.
However, she told Malaysiakini that other batches of the group’s activists who arrived later were able to campaign freely without interference.
She also said that the campaign was her own initiative and is not affiliated to the Jom Balik Undi campaign, which also calls for Malaysian expatriates to cast their votes at home.
The latter campaign also encourages Malaysian expatriates to take photos of themselves posing with a placard urging Malaysians to vote, and then post the photos on Facebook.
Alternate video sympathetic to BN
The two are just several of many separate online initiatives trying to persuade some 700,000 Malaysians abroad to vote on the 13th general election, slated for May 5.
One video posted on YouTube on April 10 drew over 28,000 viewers and over 1,000 ‘Likes’ in two days.
The video, about one minute and 40 seconds long, narrates one undergraduate student’s grievances with the status quo and her determination to do her part to change it.
On the same day, BN supporters edited the video and uploaded analternate version of it that is sympathetic of the ruling coalition.
Where the narrator of the original version had lamented, “many friends have left the country for better opportunities,” the altered version featured dubbed audio and swapped subtitles that say, “many friends are returning to help the country develop.”
As of writing, the doctored video has some 8,000 views and over 900 ‘Dislikes’.
Meanwhile, Chinese-language daily Nanyang Siang Pau reported yesterday that within a day of the polling date being announced, all bus tickets from Singapore to Ipoh have been sold out.
The article says that its reporters have surveyed three express bus companies, all of which were quoted saying that they have increased the number of trips to Ipoh.
However, the tickets were “selling out faster than Chinese New Year” and they could not cope with demand.
The city of Ipoh is divided between the parliamentary constituencies of Ipoh Timor and Ipoh Barat. Both are Chinese-majority seats with 82 percent and 65 percent of the population being Chinese Malaysians, respectively.
Budget airline AirAsia X is also running a promotional campaign where voters can get cheaper flights home to vote.
Although the Election Commission (EC) has allowed more Malaysia’s abroad to cast postal votes, the facility is not extended to Malaysians based in southern Thailand, Singapore, Brunei and Kalimantan.
Some expatriates have also complained that they were unable to register as postal voters because the EC’s website wasinaccessible, while the EC said there would be no extension of the deadline.
“I advise those who have failed to register before the deadline to look to themselves and ask why it happened that way, and return home to vote,” EC chief Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof (left) had said.
Short URL: http://www.freemalaysiakini2.com/?p=75718
on Apr 12 2013. Filed under News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
Friends in S’pore start own ‘return to vote’ campaign
Several persons were spotted roving around the Jurong East MRT station in Singapore yesterday carrying placards urging Malaysians to return to their hometowns to vote.
One onlooker took a photograph of the scene and posted it onFacebook, where it went viral with over 1,800 ‘shares’ in just 17 hours.
This turned out to be part of a private initiative of a group of about 20 Malaysian expatriates working or studying on the island nation, whom, despite fears of reprisal from Singaporean authorities, said “it did not feel right” to do nothing ahead of the looming election.
The group’s founder, who asked only to be identified as ‘Ah Yin’, said she was inspired by another photograph that went viral onFacebook several days ago, which featured a man wearing Himpunan Hijau’s signature green T-shirt (right) and holding up a placard urging Malaysians to return to vote.
“I saw the photo and asked my friends in Singapore, ‘Do we want to do this?’ and they said ‘Why not?’ so it accidentally turned into this,” she said when contacted by Malaysiakini today.
She said the movement and its 20-odd participants move in small groups of about two or three in order to avoid drawing the attention of Singaporean authorities and their restrictive laws on political expression.
In addition, the campaign’s message was limited to urging Malaysians to return to vote instead of anything that may be perceived as more provocative.
‘Singapore gov’t afraid of anti-establishment sentiments’
“They (Singaporean government) are afraid that the anti-establishment sentiments would spread there from Malaysia,” she claimed, adding that her group would avoid confrontation with the police because they still hope to make a living there.
She said Jurong East MRT station was picked as the venue for the first day of their campaign because it was a major interchange where many Malaysians transit to catch a bus ride across the Johor Straits after work.
Regardless, their campaign did not start smoothly. Within 20 minutes of starting at about 4pm yesterday, a Singaporean angrily confronted her and a friend and told them to take their activism back to Malaysia.
“He told us to leave immediately. We tried to speak to him but he wouldn’t listen at all and just kept scolding and scolding.
“We said to him that we are showing these (placards) to fellow Malaysians and not Singaporeans, but he won’t listen. He told us that we can’t do this in Singapore. Do what? It is not (a serious offence like) murder or arson,” she claimed.
The man even brandished his phone and threatened to call the police, and when she gave up and adjourned to a coffee shop for a drink, the man followed her there and only left some time afterwards.
However, she told Malaysiakini that other batches of the group’s activists who arrived later were able to campaign freely without interference.
She also said that the campaign was her own initiative and is not affiliated to the Jom Balik Undi campaign, which also calls for Malaysian expatriates to cast their votes at home.
The latter campaign also encourages Malaysian expatriates to take photos of themselves posing with a placard urging Malaysians to vote, and then post the photos on Facebook.
Alternate video sympathetic to BN
The two are just several of many separate online initiatives trying to persuade some 700,000 Malaysians abroad to vote on the 13th general election, slated for May 5.
One video posted on YouTube on April 10 drew over 28,000 viewers and over 1,000 ‘Likes’ in two days.
The video, about one minute and 40 seconds long, narrates one undergraduate student’s grievances with the status quo and her determination to do her part to change it.
On the same day, BN supporters edited the video and uploaded analternate version of it that is sympathetic of the ruling coalition.
Where the narrator of the original version had lamented, “many friends have left the country for better opportunities,” the altered version featured dubbed audio and swapped subtitles that say, “many friends are returning to help the country develop.”
As of writing, the doctored video has some 8,000 views and over 900 ‘Dislikes’.
Meanwhile, Chinese-language daily Nanyang Siang Pau reported yesterday that within a day of the polling date being announced, all bus tickets from Singapore to Ipoh have been sold out.
The article says that its reporters have surveyed three express bus companies, all of which were quoted saying that they have increased the number of trips to Ipoh.
However, the tickets were “selling out faster than Chinese New Year” and they could not cope with demand.
The city of Ipoh is divided between the parliamentary constituencies of Ipoh Timor and Ipoh Barat. Both are Chinese-majority seats with 82 percent and 65 percent of the population being Chinese Malaysians, respectively.
Budget airline AirAsia X is also running a promotional campaign where voters can get cheaper flights home to vote.
Although the Election Commission (EC) has allowed more Malaysia’s abroad to cast postal votes, the facility is not extended to Malaysians based in southern Thailand, Singapore, Brunei and Kalimantan.
Some expatriates have also complained that they were unable to register as postal voters because the EC’s website wasinaccessible, while the EC said there would be no extension of the deadline.
“I advise those who have failed to register before the deadline to look to themselves and ask why it happened that way, and return home to vote,” EC chief Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof (left) had said.
Short URL: http://www.freemalaysiakini2.com/?p=75718
on Apr 12 2013. Filed under News.
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Friends in S’pore start own ‘return to vote’ campaign
Several persons were spotted roving around the Jurong East MRT station in Singapore yesterday carrying placards urging Malaysians to return to their hometowns to vote.
One onlooker took a photograph of the scene and posted it onFacebook, where it went viral with over 1,800 ‘shares’ in just 17 hours.
This turned out to be part of a private initiative of a group of about 20 Malaysian expatriates working or studying on the island nation, whom, despite fears of reprisal from Singaporean authorities, said “it did not feel right” to do nothing ahead of the looming election.
The group’s founder, who asked only to be identified as ‘Ah Yin’, said she was inspired by another photograph that went viral onFacebook several days ago, which featured a man wearing Himpunan Hijau’s signature green T-shirt (right) and holding up a placard urging Malaysians to return to vote.
“I saw the photo and asked my friends in Singapore, ‘Do we want to do this?’ and they said ‘Why not?’ so it accidentally turned into this,” she said when contacted by Malaysiakini today.
She said the movement and its 20-odd participants move in small groups of about two or three in order to avoid drawing the attention of Singaporean authorities and their restrictive laws on political expression.
In addition, the campaign’s message was limited to urging Malaysians to return to vote instead of anything that may be perceived as more provocative.
‘Singapore gov’t afraid of anti-establishment sentiments’
“They (Singaporean government) are afraid that the anti-establishment sentiments would spread there from Malaysia,” she claimed, adding that her group would avoid confrontation with the police because they still hope to make a living there.
She said Jurong East MRT station was picked as the venue for the first day of their campaign because it was a major interchange where many Malaysians transit to catch a bus ride across the Johor Straits after work.
Regardless, their campaign did not start smoothly. Within 20 minutes of starting at about 4pm yesterday, a Singaporean angrily confronted her and a friend and told them to take their activism back to Malaysia.
“He told us to leave immediately. We tried to speak to him but he wouldn’t listen at all and just kept scolding and scolding.
“We said to him that we are showing these (placards) to fellow Malaysians and not Singaporeans, but he won’t listen. He told us that we can’t do this in Singapore. Do what? It is not (a serious offence like) murder or arson,” she claimed.
The man even brandished his phone and threatened to call the police, and when she gave up and adjourned to a coffee shop for a drink, the man followed her there and only left some time afterwards.
However, she told Malaysiakini that other batches of the group’s activists who arrived later were able to campaign freely without interference.
She also said that the campaign was her own initiative and is not affiliated to the Jom Balik Undi campaign, which also calls for Malaysian expatriates to cast their votes at home.
The latter campaign also encourages Malaysian expatriates to take photos of themselves posing with a placard urging Malaysians to vote, and then post the photos on Facebook.
Alternate video sympathetic to BN
The two are just several of many separate online initiatives trying to persuade some 700,000 Malaysians abroad to vote on the 13th general election, slated for May 5.
One video posted on YouTube on April 10 drew over 28,000 viewers and over 1,000 ‘Likes’ in two days.
The video, about one minute and 40 seconds long, narrates one undergraduate student’s grievances with the status quo and her determination to do her part to change it.
On the same day, BN supporters edited the video and uploaded analternate version of it that is sympathetic of the ruling coalition.
Where the narrator of the original version had lamented, “many friends have left the country for better opportunities,” the altered version featured dubbed audio and swapped subtitles that say, “many friends are returning to help the country develop.”
As of writing, the doctored video has some 8,000 views and over 900 ‘Dislikes’.
Meanwhile, Chinese-language daily Nanyang Siang Pau reported yesterday that within a day of the polling date being announced, all bus tickets from Singapore to Ipoh have been sold out.
The article says that its reporters have surveyed three express bus companies, all of which were quoted saying that they have increased the number of trips to Ipoh.
However, the tickets were “selling out faster than Chinese New Year” and they could not cope with demand.
The city of Ipoh is divided between the parliamentary constituencies of Ipoh Timor and Ipoh Barat. Both are Chinese-majority seats with 82 percent and 65 percent of the population being Chinese Malaysians, respectively.
Budget airline AirAsia X is also running a promotional campaign where voters can get cheaper flights home to vote.
Although the Election Commission (EC) has allowed more Malaysia’s abroad to cast postal votes, the facility is not extended to Malaysians based in southern Thailand, Singapore, Brunei and Kalimantan.
Some expatriates have also complained that they were unable to register as postal voters because the EC’s website wasinaccessible, while the EC said there would be no extension of the deadline.
“I advise those who have failed to register before the deadline to look to themselves and ask why it happened that way, and return home to vote,” EC chief Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof (left) had said.
Short URL: http://www.freemalaysiakini2.com/?p=75718
on Apr 12 2013. Filed under News.
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