Sarawak State General Election - A Wind of Change?

The current Sarawak state government mandate will expire this July, and many has been predicting that the current Chief Minister from Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud will desolve the state council latest by end of this month.

This is due to the Malaysian constitution, that an election should be called within the period of 60 days after the dissolution of the State council or Parliament. With the expiry date coming closer by the day, the speculation that Taib Mahmud would call for a state election is rife.

The state election would become as an acid test for the ruling coalition, as the benchmark of their performance and popularity among the rakyat, before the Parliament is dissolved and a nationwide General Election would be called.

Analyzing the mood of the Sarawakian on grass roots level recently, the ruling coalition still holds favorable position among the Bumiputera strong bed. Judging from past results, and the fact that literacy rate and internet and communication infrastructure is very much lagging in Sarawak's mountainous landscape compared to the Peninsular Malaysia, it is safe to assume that the rural Sarawakian is still "detached" to the political scene at large in West Malaysia.

However, the state's opposition coalition, lead by Peninsular-based Democratic Action Party (DAP), the oppositions are making in roads into the larger urban areas in Sarawak, especially in cities like Kuching and Miri, and also larger towns with significant Chinese voters such as Sibu and Bintulu.

The ruling coalition has kick-started the election fever with ceramahs and public celebration with goodies and allocations given out to schools and the local community. These are further signs that the state election is just around the corner.

On the questions whether the Federal government would dissolve the Parliament to hold a simultaneous General Election together with the Sarawak State Election, it is very unlikely. According to a very reliable source, the Federal government would want to see the implementation of various economic projects and investments announced earlier to gain support from the rakyat, as it will be a prove that the government's economic policy is favorable to investors, and that the government is able to bring development to the rakyat.

Among the big ticket projects announced for implementation this year is the Klang Valley MRT project and the Sungei Besi Airport development project.

Malaysians Fate in Egypt still Unknown

Due to the recent Egyptian revolution, Malaysians in Egypt are still unknown for their fate.
Most of them are students, studying in selected Egyptian universities, mainly the Al Azhar University, University of Cairo and Mansoura University.There are some business community also especially in cities like Cairo and Suez.
Most countries have started evacuating their citizens out of Egypt, by air, sea or land.  The British government is reported to sent chartered aircraft to bring their citizens out of Egypt for fear of their safety. Other countries has also started evacuating their citizens, and mostly they will be brought to neighboring countries first, such as Saudi Arabia or Jordan.
According to the latest report on The Star (Malaysian newspaper), the Malaysian government has issued a directive to bring Malaysian students by air or sea out of Egypt. They will eventually be placed at the Tabung Haji (Malaysian pilgrimage fund) center in Jeddah until the situation calms down.
So far, more than 11,000 of Malaysian students has registered with the Malaysian embassy in Cairo.

Dr Mahathir hits out Singapore

Malaysia does not sabotage Singapore by developing its own ports, said Dr Mahathir Mohamad. In his letter to Utusan Malaysia today, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia said that it is not wrong for an independent country like Malaysia and Indonesia to develop their own ports.

According to him, what Malaysia and Indonesia did was not an act of sabotaging the Singapore port, but as a competition to the latter.

Singapore's Port operation is said to be affected by the growing and fast developing ports on southern Johore, such as the Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) and the Johor Port at Pasir Gudang.

PTP for instance, set the world record as the fastest growing port with 1 million twenty foot equivalent unit (TEU) in just 571 days of operation in 2000. This is due to its strategic location which is on the busy sea lanes of which the Port of Singapore derived its growth.

Previously, there was also call from MMC Corp, a power-to-ports conglomerate which owns both ports (Pasir Gudang and Tanjung Pelepas) to the government for a consolidation between the operation of both ports. According to persons who are informed with the proposal, the consolidated operation between both ports could pose a greater competition to Port of Singapore in the medium to long term.

PTP and Johore Port could become the alternative choice to Port of Singapore based on their competitive rates and efficient container handling and throughput. This is reaffirmed by the growing sea liners which opted to dock at PTP such as MAERSK, Evergreen and CMA-CGM, which are three of the world largest sea liners.

The government should play more roles in promoting PTP and Johore Port as the choice ports in South East Asia. More investments should be injected into expanding the ports berthing facility and also for increasing the connectivity between the ports to the rest of Asia.

With the area of southern Johore being gazetted as the next growth region for the country through the implementation of the Iskandar Development Region (IDR), there are much more potential for both ports to expand and increased in prominence as the next international port destination in Asia.