• Penduduk mengambil kesempatan mengutip ikan yang terdampar di persisir pantai Pulau Tambisan.

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SHAH ALAM - Beribu-ribu ikan yang kebiasaannya hanya berenang di tengah lautan, hari ini dilihat berpusu-pusu berenang ke pesisiran pantai dan melompat naik ke daratan.

 

Fenomena aneh yang mengejutkan penduduk setempat ini berlaku di Pulau Tambisan, Lahad Datu, kira-kira jam 9 pagi tadi.

 

Menurut pembaca Sinar Harian Online, Luludaprincess Oja yang berkongsi maklumat itu, kejadian itu disedari oleh penduduk sekitar yang melalui kawasan itu secara tiba-tiba melihat ikan meloncat naik ke daratan.

 

"..situasi ini disedari oleh orang kampung yang kebetulan berada di tepi pantai, melihat kelainan dalam air tersebut di mana ikan-ikan meloncat naik ke darat.

 

"Sesetengah penduduk mengambil kesempatan untuk memungut ikan tersebut.

 

"Ini merupakan fenomena pertama berlaku di kampung tersebut," katanya.

 

Dalam pada itu, Sinar Harian Online mendapati video mengenai peristiwa itu yang berdurasi dua minit tiga puluh lima saat telah dimuatnaikkan di laman Youtube.

 

Sebelum ini, kejadian tsunami yang berlaku di Acheh pada 26 Disember 2004 turut mencatatkan tanda-tanda pelik sebelum berlaku bencana alam tersebut.

Thu, 19 Dec 2013 03:30:00 GMT | By Kee Thuan Chye

BLOG: Najib deserves his ratings drop

According to the Merdeka Centre survey, approval ratings for Najib have dropped from 62 per cent in August to 52 per cent. It is his lowest since September 2009, which was five months after he took over as prime minister. 

 

The toll rate hike that will be starting on January 1 intensifies the distrust. Originally, Works Minister Fadillah Yusof was quoted in the New Straits Times as saying that 15 national highways would be affected, but in the aftermath of a public outcry against the hike, he claimed that he had not specified the number.

He also said that the Cabinet had not made any final decision on the matter, resorting to the current standard operating procedure of the Government to provide itself an escape route whenever it is squeezed into a corner. This means it might flip-flop on its original decision if the response is negative. No wonder it’s losing the trust of Malaysians; after having performed so many flip-flops in the last few years, how could it not?

More than that, the toll hike issue has prompted people to ask questions also related to trust. Is there a real need for the hike when the financial burden on the rakyat is already getting heavier? Can’t the agreement with the highway concessionaires be renegotiated to defer it? Does the new rate have to be so high? Have the concessionaires not made enough – or even more than that – after so many years of collecting toll? Who are the people who are actually benefitting from this while the rakyat suffer?

The Government claims the toll hike will save it RM400 million which would otherwise have to be paid as compensation to the concessionaires. It says this money can be used instead for the country’s development. With our trust in the Government being at rock-bottom, can we be sure this will be the case?
Besides, after having seen the Government use our money in profligate ways, such as inflating the costs of mega-projects so that certain quarters would benefit from kickbacks or bribing the people to vote for the ruling party so it could retain power at GE13, are we confident it will use our money for the right purposes?

The Merdeka Centre Survey shows us we are not. On the question of whether our country is going in the right direction, only 41 per cent said it is. Opposing that was 49 per cent. This is the first time since 2008 that those who said wrong direction outnumber those who said right.

In this regard, the majority of respondents are worried about the Government’s handling of the economy, with 67 per cent saying it is the number one problem facing our country today – way above crime, social problems, racial issues and political issues.

No doubt Najib will pooh-pooh the survey findings, as he did those of Umcedel (Universiti Malaya Centre for Democracy and Elections) done just before GE13 which showed that Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim was perceived to be more qualified to be prime minister. But however Najib reacts, he can’t run away from the fact that he has not proven to be a competent leader.

He is weak, he flip-flops, he spends public money extravagantly and gets sarcastic when he’s questioned about it, he keeps silent when the rakyat need him to say something to reassure them, he talks about instituting reform but he dares not go the whole hog. As a result, his so-called reforms have merely been half-measures.

He makes amendments to draconian laws, falling short of repealing them. He did repeal the Internal Security Act (ISA) and the Emergency Ordinance but after GE13, he brought back preventive detention through amendments to the Prevention of Crime Act (PCA). He also gave us the dreaded Public Assembly Act (PAA), which narrows our democratic space.

And I haven’t even begun to talk about his colourless record for tackling corruption. Does he even have the guts for it?
So, yes, his ratings have dropped – and this is all I can say: he certainly deserves it. Yes, I reiterate, he does indeed.
 

Thu, 19 Dec 2013 03:30:00 GMT | By Kee Thuan Chye

BLOG: Najib deserves his ratings drop

According to the Merdeka Centre survey, approval ratings for Najib have dropped from 62 per cent in August to 52 per cent. It is his lowest since September 2009, which was five months after he took over as prime minister. 

 

 

DATO' SERI HJ NAJIB TUN RAZAK - PM MALAYSIA

I asked what it was, and he said, “The latest Merdeka Centre survey findings. Najib’s ratings have dropped 10 points. This shows it’s not just you and I who are saying negative things about him.”
“He deserves it,” I said, emphatically.

According to the Merdeka Centre survey, approval ratings for Najib have dropped from 62 per cent in August to 52 per cent. It is his lowest since September 2009, which was five months after he took over as prime minister. Then, he had ratings of 59 per cent.

The current drop was due to declining belief in him expressed by Malay, Chinese and Indian respondents hailing from different social backgrounds. Of the 1,005 individuals polled from all states throughout Peninsular Malaysia, 41 per cent were dissatisfied with Najib’s performance as prime minister.

Asked how happy they were with the Government, 39 per cent said they were dissatisfied with it and 8 per cent said they were angry with it. Only 38 per cent gave it a nod. This is also a drop of 12 per cent from the 50 per cent who were happy with the Government in August.

“People asked me if the ratings drop was because he’s bringing on GST (goods and services tax),” my friend said, “but I told them no, because that’s coming on only in 2015.”

My friend is right. The main reason is the rising costs of daily living. Electricity tariffs, highway toll rates, assessment rates for Kuala Lumpurians, petrol prices, the price of sugar. They will inevitably snowball into inflation. Transport costs will increase, rents will go up, raw and prepared food prices will rise further, etc, etc. The Malaysian rakyat are not looking forward with cheer to the new year. Goodness knows what other hazards lie in wait.

Another reason is the rakyat’s realisation that the Government makes promises but doesn’t keep them. To give one of its slogans a twist, we say, “Janji tidak ditepati.” (Promises unfulfilled.) It’s interesting to note that the ethnic group that registered the biggest disappointment in Najib was the Indians. From 76 per cent in August, their faith in him has dropped to 57 per cent. That’s a slump of 19 per cent. They must have realised that even with former Hindraf leader P. Waythamoorthy having been made a deputy prime minister through some deal struck between him and Najib, the Indians are still on a losing wicket.

Worse, what another Government slogan says about the needs of the people being considered first (rakyat didahulukan) is turning out to be a lie. How are the people being given priority when they are becoming increasingly burdened with rising prices?

Appropriately then, this ratings drop is a double whammy for Najib. At the last general election (GE13), he led his Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition to electoral victory but lost the popular vote, garnering 47 per cent compared to the Opposition’s 51 per cent. Now his own popularity has dived. It says a lot about how the people by and large have come to distrust him and his government.