Maid kills her newborn baby

The Star, Wednesday March 26, 2014

by natasha joibi

KUALA LUMPUR: A 26-year-old Indonesian maid was arrested after she confessed to slaying her newborn baby with a pair of scissors.

Kajang OCPD Asst Comm Abdul Rashid Abdul Wahab said the woman was brought to the Serdang Hospital at around midnight on Sunday after she complained of severe pain in her abdomen.

“Her employers, who were unaware that she had just given birth in a room in their house, brought her to the hospital to seek medical attention.

“After close inspection by the doctors, the maid admitted to delivering a baby a few hours ago,” ACP Abdul Rashid said.

He said that a police report was lodged after the maid told the doctors that she had flushed the newborn baby down a toilet in her employers’ house.

“However, the forensics team found no traces of the newborn in the toilet. The team eventually found the dead baby in a room along with a pair of scissors.

“The maid then admitted to using the scissors to slit the baby’s throat,” he said.

ACP Abdul Rashid added that the child’s father, a Nepalese national, was unavailable to have his statement recorded as he had returned to his country.

The maid’s employers declined to be interviewed when met at their Taman Kajang Baru residence where the woman had worked for over two years.

In an unrelated incident, police detained a university student in her 20s for purportedly killing her newborn baby after giving birth in a dormitory at Bandar Seri Putra in Kajang.

ACP Abdul Rashid said the student put the dead baby in a garbage bag before disposing it at the Terminal Bersepadu Selatan in Cheras on Saturday.

The student then took a bus to Malacca and threw away her bloodstained clothes at a resort where she stayed overnight.

She reportedly left Malacca at around 9am the next day and met a university warden upon arriving in Kajang.

The warden later lodged a police report following the student’s confession.

ACP Abdul Rashid said that the wounds on the baby’s head led police to believe that she was killed after delivery.

He added that the two suspects would be remanded until March 28 to facilitate investigations.

Student killed, teacher and three others seriously injured in bus crash

The Sun Daily, 24 March 2014

Charles Ramendran newsdesk@thesundaily.com

Students from the ill-fated bus being led from the crash site. SUNPIX by ADIB RAWI

KAJANG: A 17-year-old student was killed while three others and a teacher were seriously injured after a bus they chartered for a school trip overturned near Hulu Langat in Selangor today.

Chin Yeong Peng, a fifth former at SMJK Katholik near Jalan Gasing, Petaling Jaya, died of severe injuries in the incident.

Three of his schoolmates and a teacher have been warded at the Ampang Hospital with serious injuries.

Kajang police chief ACP Abdul Rashid Abdul Wahab said Chin and the injured were among 157 students and four teachers from the school who had taken part in a two-day camping trip at a resort in Hulu Langat on Sunday.

He said four school buses were chartered to ferry the students and teachers to the recreational area.

It is learned that the buses were travelling in a convoy to a restaurant at about 1.30pm when one of them ran off the road and turned turtle.

Abdul Rashid said there were 35 students and a teacher in the bus, adding that most of them escaped unhurt or with minor injuries.

Selangor Fire and Rescue Department director of operations Mohd Sani Harul said 15 firemen arrived at the scene to assist the injured.

He said Chin was taken in an ambulance to the Serdang Hospital where he was pronounced dead by doctors.

Police have recorded a statement from the 36-year-old bus driver.

Preliminary investigations show that brake failure led to the accident.

PKR: BN youths assaulted our man

FMT, 24 March 2014

P Ramani

 

PKR claims that one of its youth leaders was assaulted by BN youths during the Kajang by-election.

 

PETALING JAYA: PKR Batu Caves state assemblyman Amiruddin Shari urged Barisan Nasional (BN) Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin to respond on the indecent behaviour shown by his youth members during the Kajang state by-election yesterday.

In a press conference this afternoon at the party headquarters, Amiruddin related that Johor youth assistant chief Mohd Ramly Ahmad was assaulted by eight individuals believed to be from BN Youth campaigners.

The incident was alleged to have taken place around 3pm in front of Sekolah Kebangsaan Kajang polling station.

According to Amiruddin, the individuals surrounded Mohd Ramly when he was walking towards his car and assaulted him with flag sticks which resulted in him sustaining forehead and body injuries.

After the incident, the victim was brought to PKR’s medical aid room to receive treatment. Thereafter the victim with other PKR youth members lodged a report at the Kajang district police station, said Amiruddin.

Amiruddin added that this case was being investigated under Section 148 of the Penal Code by ASP Mohamad Sajidan Abdul Sukor.

Amiruddin said he had previously reminded Youth and Sports Minister Khairy, who is also the Umno Youth chief, to take care of his youth teams and avoid creating any provocation or ruckus during the campaign and election time.

Amiruddin added that the BN youth members were acting like gangsters by shouting vulgar words and showing indecent gestures during the campaign.

In yesterday’s poll, PKR candidate Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail defeated MCA vice-president Chew Mei Fun with a majority of 5,379 votes.

She polled 16,741 votes whereas Chew polled 11,362 votes. There were 176 spoilt votes.

The voter turnout was low this time, only at 72.1% (28,314 voters), compared to a turnout of 87.9 percent in the May 5 general election last year.

SHOCK Kajang turnout due to voter fatigue, inconvenience

The Malay Mail, Monday, 24 March 2014  

 

KUALA LUMPUR - The lower turnout in the Kajang by-election was indicative of Malaysians’ weariness with local politics, some political analysts said while others put it down to abstaining outstation voters.

“It is an indication of voter fatigue and disillusionment with politics in the country — disillusionment with politics as a whole including PKR’s engineering of the by-election,” Centre for Policy Initiatives (CPI) chief Dr Lim Teck Ghee told The Malay Mail Online today.

“At the same time, the large majority felt that it was still important for them to drag themselves to the voting booth — however reluctantly — so as to ensure a PKR victory,” the political analyst added.

The alternate explanation provided by Merdeka Centre’s Ibrahim Suffian and James Chin from Monash University (Malaysian campus) was that the 72 per cent voter turnout at the Kajang by-election was more likely due to outstation voters staying home.

PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail won the Kajang state seat yesterday, netting 16,741 votes to Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun’s 11,362 votes.

Dr Wan Azizah’s majority of 5,379 votes was lower than that of PKR’s Lee Chin Cheh, who won the state seat during the 13th general election last year with a margin of 6,824 votes, although the former increased PKR’s proportion of the vote slightly from 57 per cent to 59 per cent.

During Election 2013, 88 per cent of registered voters came out to cast their ballots in Kajang, but the turnout dipped to 72 per cent in the by-election yesterday.

Datuk Dr Shamsul Amri Baharuddin from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia said the lower voter turnout signalled a protest against the “contrived” by-election — dubbed the “Kajang Move” — that was triggered by Lee’s unforced and unexplained resignation.

“And perhaps BN increased [its support] due to protest voters who decided to not vote PR (Pakatan Rakyat) this time,” the political analyst told The Malay Mail Online.

But he also cautioned MCA against prematurely celebrating their purported increase in Chinese support.

“Protesting against PR and thus voting for BN not really for MCA. Chinese voters are still solidly behind PR, and Malay voters are divided,” said Shamsul Amri.

The Kajang by-election was widely seen as a stepping stone for Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to replace Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim as Selangor mentri besar, in order to resolve PKR’s internal conflicts.

But the PKR de facto leader was disqualified after his previous sodomy acquittal was overturned on March 7, three days before nomination, forcing PKR to field Dr Wan Azizah in his stead.

According to Ibrahim, surveys by independent pollster Merdeka Centre showed only a “small fraction” of voters who cited unhappiness with the “forced” by-election, many of whom were sympathetic towards BN.

“MCA may have improved on the Chinese vote overall, but one needs to look at the details. Turnout in the Chinese polling districts were low and likely consisted of elderly voters who are slightly more inclined to them anyway,” the Merdeka Centre chief told The Malay Mail Online.

Monash University’s Chin said the Kajang election outcome showed that PR continues to enjoy “solid support” in Selangor, the country’s most developed and industrialised state.

“MCA will not get the Chinese vote,” Chin told The Malay Mail Online.

Ibrahim said that the lower voter turnout could also be due to Umno supporters not coming out in large numbers to vote for an “inconsequential” election, or because of younger and out-of-town voters opting to give the poll a miss.

It could also simply be people taking the weekend off as the election coincided with the start of school holidays, he said.

“Plus next week Chengbeng begins, so people living away will hold back making their visit,” Ibrahim added, referring to the Chinese All Souls Day festival where people visit their ancestors’ graves. 

- Malaymail

Full article: http://malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=249812:shock-kajang-turnout-due-to-voter-fatigue-inconvenience&Itemid=2#ixzz2x2BjddlM
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Kajang Voters Make Us Proud

From Aliran

The voters of Kajang have redeemed our hope that change is possible and that our aspirations are achievable, says P Ramakrishnan. 

Voters turn out on polling day – Photograph: Malay Mail Online

PKR won the Kajang by-election as widely expected, albeit with a slightly reduced majority. This lower majority could be attributed to the poor turnout of 72 per cent of voters compared with the 88 per cent in the general election last May.

Much has been made of this reduced majority. In 2013, PKR won with a majority of 6,823 votes but this has now been trimmed to 5,379, a shortfall of 1,455 votes.

But nothing is said in the BN-controlled mainstream media about the drop in the number of votes polled by the MCA-BN since GE13. In 2013, the MCA bagged 12,747 votes compared with its present tally of 11,362, a reduction of 1,385 votes. This must be worrying for the MCA.

In fact, the MCA’s Lee Ban Seng, who was defeated in GE13, did much better than Datuk Paduka Chew Mei Fun. In the MCA hierarchy, Ban Seng was a nobody whereas Mei Fun is the third-highest ranking leader in the MCA. Moreover, she had a bigger profile and was better known, having been a former PJ Utara MP and deputy minister in the BN government.

For her to draw fewer votes than Ban Seng does not speak well for Chinese Malaysian support for the MCA. It does not in any way show that the support from the community is returning to the MCA. So there is nothing to gloat about for the Umno-BN in this by-election.

All said and done, Aliran would like to commend the voters of Kajang for their bravery and their courageous indictment of Umno and its lop-sided policies and mismanagement of government. 

The voters of Kajang have redeemed our hope that change is possible and that our aspirations are achievable. They have shown us: “We need never be hopeless because we can never be irreparably broken.” 

They have confirmed that what has happened in the recent past – the convictions of Anwar Ibrahim and Karpal Singh in rushed judgments – are acts that have to be condemned in no uncertain terms.

They have clearly conveyed the message that corruption will not be tolerated, that selective prosecutions are abhorrent, that the attempt to divide us along ethnic and religious lines will be fiercely resisted, that ignoring the plight of the poor and promoting the enrichment of the powerful will invite the backlash of thinking Malaysians.

They have set the trend for GE14 and showed us the way forward. The way forward is full of hope for change, and that possibility is real.

We are reminded of the inspiring saying, “Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.”

Likewise, when the many caring Malaysians walk together along the path of democracy, we can pave the way for a new government that will be just and fair to all Malaysians – irrespective of our ethnic and religious origins.

P Ramakrishnan
Executive committee member
24 March 2014

'COLORFUL' VOTERS brighten up Kajang poll

The Sun Daily, Monday, 24 March 2014 

KAJANG - As supporters of the contesting parties lined the small road leading to SK Seri Sekamat polling station here today, one voter caught public attention by the way he was dressed.

A 77-year-old man, who wanted to be known only as Shaman, was adorned with flowers, garlands and a picture of a globe pasted on his head.

He said that by dressing this way, he hoped that his prayers would be answered for his chosen candidate.

Asked who he supported, he said: "I cannot reveal it to you. I will be breaking the law. Let the heavens decide this."

Another voter, K. Manogar, 46, who was wheelchair-bound due to an accident, said he wanted to exercise his right as a voter.

"I asked my neighbours to wheel me here so that I can cast my ballot," he said.

Local folk were also seen selling various vegetables such as kangkung and carrots as well as drinks outside the polling centre.

One of them said they took the polling day as an opportunity to make some money. -Sundaily

Full article: http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=249172:colorful-voters-brighten-up-kajang-poll&Itemid=2#ixzz2x2AjYPVe
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Cracks put residents in Taman Bukit Indah at risk

The Star, Monday March 24, 2014

by christina tan

On dangerous ground: Occupants of the houses in Taman Bukit Mewah, Kajang were asked to move out several years ago.

RESIDENTS at Jalan Bukit Indah in Taman Bukit Mewah, Kajang continue to worry about their safety as cracks in their houses and on the roads have been left unaddressed by the local authorities.

Ong Swee Leong said there were many cracks in some of the houses on the hill, while other residents had complained of sinking ground in their compound.

He claimed that the cracks had appeared several years ago and the Kajang Municipal Council (MPKj) had informed five houseowners to evacuate their homes.

“We had to leave because the local authority said the ground was not safe.

“It is really worrying and we hope the Government will take action and help us,” he said.

Another resident Ahmad Anwar, 70, said he moved out for a week after receiving a notice from the local council asking them to evacuate.

“I came back after one week. Where can I go? This is my house.

“It is sad that the authorities have not done anything to address such issues until lives are lost.

MCA vice-president Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun said the issue must be looked into seriously because it could lead to a disaster.

“I have spoken to Works Minister Datuk Fadillah Yusof, who promised to send his officers to investigate the complaints,” she said.

She added that the local council could not resolve a complicated issue like erosion or earth movement on its own, and should work with the experts and related agencies to resolve the matter.