Penang State Government Gives RM500 to University Students

From the New Straits Times:

GEORGE TOWN: The state government is offering a one-time financial aid of RM500 to needy students here to cope with the cost of entering a tertiary institution. Political secretary to the Chief Minister, Ng Wei Aik, said in a statement yesterday that students whose parents earn a basic salary of RM2,000 and below could apply for the aid.

"Parents can apply through the Land and District Offices in the Northeast, Southwest, Seberang Perai Utara, Seberang Perai Tengah or Seberang Perai Selatan districts," he said.

The form can also be downloaded from the state government's web portal at http://www.penang.gov.my/.

Ng said each application must be verified by the chairman of the Village and Security Development Committee or the village heads in the respective district offices.

Ng added that the aid was only considered for the current year or session and those who were undergoing pre-university or matriculation courses were not eligible for the aid.

Instead of wading through the website, here's the direct link to page in question. With less than 2 weeks remaining before the July 31st deadline, be quick if you're interested!

Besides the RM500 financial aid, students can also apply for a loan from the state government if they're unable to receive it from PTPTN. According to statistics provided by the site, only 220 applicants were given loans from the state last year, a far cry from the thousands that PTPTN has to deal with every year. Yes the amount is lower (RM4,000-5,000 compared to RM6,500-7,000), but there should be less hassle in the application. Deadline is also July 31st.

Parti Sosialis Malaysia Finally Gets Registration Approval

From The Malaysian Insider:

KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 — Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid has approved in principle the registration of Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) as a political party.

PSM has two elected lawmakers who won their seats on the Parti Keadilan Rakyat ticket in Election 2008. Dr M. Jayakumar Devaraj was the "giant killer" who ousted Datuk S. Samy Vellu from the Sungai Siput parliamentary constituency and Dr Nasir Hashim is the Selangor assemblyman for Kota Damansara.

PSM has waged a 10-year battle to gain recognition as a political party including a law suit still in progress against the government.

The party will now request the Federal Court for an adjournment of the case. The Home Ministry's approval has made PSM's appeal against an earlier court decision to reject its application to be registered as a political party irrelevant. Syed Hamid's intervention in favour of PSM should make the party's new registration a sure thing.

PSM protem secretary-general S. Arutchelvan had on May 28 sought Syed Hamid's support for the party's request for registration.

Syed Hamid responded positively to Arutchlvan's email on June 4 when he said the ministry would allow PSM's registration to proceed.

Today the ministry followed up with a letter asking that PSM put in a new application for political party status.

Ten long years! Congratulations is all I can say to them.

What isn't mentioned in the article is that PSM originally descended from Parti Sosialis Rakyat Malaysia, which then later dropped the word "Sosialis" from its name and later merged with Parti Keadilan Nasional to form Parti Keadilan Rakyat. A splinter group who objected to the merger still keeps the Parti Rakyat Malaysia name but they failed to win a single seat during the recent March 8 election.

Speaking of splinter groups, one of them is the Malaysian Democratic Party which branched off from the Democratic Action Party. MDP ran under the PKR banner and won a parliament seat. At the moment these small parties have a strong base in their own constituencies but as for outside unfortunately not much is known about them. It would be interesting to see how would they grow given the proper political environment.

Related link: Parti Sosialis Malaysia website

I Was Standing Five Feet Away From Anwar Ibrahim!

...until the crowd swarmed towards him and I had to squeeze myself out.

But of course this is nothing compared to this blogger who invited Anwar and Selangor MB Khalid Ibrahim to his Dubai house.

Anyways, I'm too tired to blog at the moment. Just wanted to say that the recent Pakatan Rakyat ceramah at the Penang city stadium (beside Lorong Kulit market) was very successful (my estimation is 10,000 people), seeing how everyone turned out just to listen to Anwar Ibrahim speak. He doesn't need any prepared notes nor cues from DJs for the crowd to applause. One thing I feel that sets Pakatan Rakyat politcians from the Barisan Nasional ones is their speeches seem to be more sincere. Their words flow out from their hearts rather than their pockets and most importantly, what they say is relevant to the lives of the ordinary rakyat.

Lim Guan Eng delivered a good speech as well though, even though it was a bit obvious that the heavily accented Hokkien parts of his speech didn't go down well with the Malay-majority crowd. However he managed to turn on the crowd's response when he started speaking in Malay. As usual, Lim Guan Eng is the more down-to-earth guy and I believe his tenure as Penang Chief Minister will truly outlast Koh Tsu Koon. If Anwar manages to become Prime Minister, I say Lim Guan Eng might have a good chance to become his Deputy. :)

Rammstein and Kittens!

What do you get when you cross Rammstein, a Neue Deutsche Harte (New German Hard) band, with some cute and fluffy kittens?

The result is this:

Giggled to death yet? :)

Moby - Dream About Me

In memoriam.

14 June 2007 - 11 July 2007

Malaysiakini: 2,000 Play "Cat and Mouse" With Cops [Video Inside]

Previous post: And the Fuel Hike Protests Begins! [Updated With Photos]

Barely 3 hours after the protest had started, Malaysiakini has come up with a video report on the event:

Today's fuel hike protest could be a dry run of sorts. The 2,000 strong crowd was most likely testing the response of the police and FRU (as well as the politicians behind them), in anticipation of yet another protest at KLCC on July 12.

How many are they aiming for? One million participants! Next month's protest would rival the Bersih and Hindraf ones last year in size. With enough time and preparation (it's an added advantage that July 12 falls on a Saturday), it would be entirely possible to rally at least 100,000 people in a month's time. It would also be important to see how the federal government would react.



Btw, anyone noticed how the police, government and mass media would stress the "illegal" part of "illegal gathering" in the days before today's protests?

And the Fuel Hike Protests Begins! [Updated With Photos]

The Malaysian Insider says:

Latest: Protest march in KL
Thousands, their arms linked in a show of unity, are about to start marching from the Kampung Baru mosque towards the Petronas Twin Towers, shouting "Turun harga" (down with prices), "Turun minyak" (down with petrol), "Turun BN" (down with BN). The police have yet to make any move to break up the assembly. The security forces, with shields up, are keeping a close watch.

One agitated protestor was heard shouting for Pak Lah to step down, calling him a "paling penipu" (liar who lies the most).

Malaysiakini estimates the size of the protest crowd to be roughly 1,000. Started just half an hour ago, the protestors had to take a different route to KLCC because of the FRU's (Federal Reserve Unit) intereference.

Update #2 from The Malaysian Insider:

Thousands of protesters, six-car lanes wide and about 100 metres long, are now on Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman heading towards the Petronas Twin Towers. The road has been closed to traffic. The police are keeping a close watch of the situation and have yet to make any move to break up the assembly. A police helicopter is also observing the proceedings from the sky.

Malaysiakini now reports that the opposition-led protestors are avoiding any confrontations with the police. Hundreds of people are staging a sit-down protest in front of Sogo departmental store. As usual, it's going to be a game of cat and mouse between the protestors and the police. Malaysiakini now revises the number to 2,000.

This is the original protest route planned:


Update #3 from Malaysiakini:
Police have indicated that no arrests will be made so far, since after marching to PAS' headquarters in Jalan Raja Laut it is believed that the protestors will disperse there.


(Photo above credit to Stanley88 from the Lowyat.net forums.)


(Photo above credit to JS from the Lowyat.net forums. Click here for the larger version.)


(Photo above credit to JS from the Lowyat.net forums. Click here for the larger version.)

Update #4 from The Malaysian Insider:

"The leaders of BN are living off the backs of the rakyat," one protestor was heard shouting. Heavy police presence prevented protesters from proceeding to the KLCC as planned so the back-up end point is now Sogo in Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. They are heading back to the PAS office in Jalan Raja Laut. PKR Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar says they are hoping to collect 1 million signatures ahead of the July 5 protest which is to be the biggest in Malaysia. As of today, they have already collected 10,000 signatures. They want the fuel prices to go back to pre-hike level.

At a press conference after the protest march, it was announced that the Pakatan Rakyat roadshow to protest the fuel hike will kick off this Sunday in Penang at the Stadium Bandaraya. All the Pakatan leaders will be there including Anwar Ibrahim.

From The Star:

KUALA LUMPUR: A large group gathered in front of the Kampung Baru mosque after Friday prayers to protest the recent fuel price hike.

The group marched towards the junction of Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman and Jalan Dang Wangi in front of the Sogo shopping complex.

They then sat on the road for a few minutes before moving on to the PAS headquarters on Jalan Raja Laut.

A total of 889 police personnel stood watch but did not confront the crowd for fear of provoking unruly behaviour among the demonstrators.

The crowd dispersed at about 3.15pm shortly after reaching the PAS headquarters.

Earlier it was reported that about 2,000 police officers and FRU personnel were deployed near Kampung Baru and the Kuala Lumpur City Centre ahead of the anticipated fuel price hike rally organised by PAS.

[Updates completed.]