The Star 5th November 2008

Wednesday November 5, 2008
EPF down from 11% to 8%

PETALING JAYA: Employees can choose to reduce their EPF contributions to increase their disposable income next year.
The Government has allowed employees to reduce their contributions by three percentage points from 2009 to 2011.
Presently, the employer’s EPF contribution is 12% while employees contribute 11%.
“With the reduction, the total contribution is still at a reasonable rate of 20%, which is 12% from the employer and 8% from employee,” said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
Najib, who is also Finance Minister, said if all contributors chose to reduce their contributions, it would come up to RM4.8bil annually.
“Assuming that only 50% of contributors take up the option, private spending is expected to go up by RM2.4bil,” he said.
“A person earning RM2,000 could gain an extra disposable income of RM60 monthly, while one earning RM6,000 will have an extra RM180 to spend.”
On the RM5bil fund injection into government investing agency Valuecap to stimulate capital market activity, Najib said similar moves had been implemented in other countries such as the Tracker Fund in Hong Kong in 1998, and recently by Qatar Investment Authority and the largest pension fund in Korea.
“The extra fund is acquired from EPF loans which is guaranteed by the Government. Therefore, the loan does not only guarantee higher returns compared with deposit rates from banking institutions but is also a minimum risk investment to EPF,” he said.
But, some workers’ unions felt that savings will be reduced and it will affect the people’s retirement funds.
National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) secretary general J. Solomon said he hoped that the voluntary offer was only for the time being during the economic crisis.
MTUC president Syed Shahir Syed Mohamud said that reduced savings would not benefit contributors.
“When savings go down it will be followed by a decrease in dividends.
Wednesday November 5, 2008
An insult to single mothers

I AM utterly disgusted by the report “Malacca may give RM1,000 to men who take them as second wives” (The Star, Nov 1).
The move is tantamount to selling off a single mother for the price of a mere RM1,000.
I lost my father when I was four months old. My mum was never that desperate that she wished to re-marry. To me, she is the greatest mum in the world. She is tough, kind, patient and determined.
Needless to say, my mum was very disappointed with the report.
The decision by the Malacca Government is an insult to all single mums, especially those living in Malacca. They perceive every single mother is desperate to re-marry. And this move will only encourage polygamy among men in Malacca.
The Malacca Government may have good intentions in making the suggestion but it must understand that single mothers are not stocks that can simply be sold off.
Single mothers, just like everyone out there, have dignity. What single mothers really want is to live a quiet life and bring up their children well so that they will eventually be able to take good care of her.
I truly believe that single mums are tougher and I urge the Malacca Government to seriously re-consider the move.
There are more hard-pressed matters to focus on during this time of recession. If the Malacca Government has so much money, why not give the RM1,000 or more directly to all the single mums in Malacca?
CHUAH PING SHIEN,Kuala Lumpur.
Wednesday November 5, 2008
Opposition walks out as Najib announces package

Kuala Lumpur: Opposition MPs staged a walkout halfway through Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s presentation of additional economic measures in winding up the Budget in Parliament.
The Pakatan Rakyat MPs were angry at being denied an opportunity to seek clarification on the measures introduced for the first time yesterday.
Jumping from their seats, they told Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia that Najib was presenting new items in his speech which had not been touched on in the Budget 2009 speech in August and insisted on being allowed to intervene.
Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (PKR - Permatang Pauh) told Pandikar Amin that Najib was being unreasonable, saying that MPs had been waiting for weeks for a reply from the Finance Minister.
Mohd Azmin Ali (PKR – Gombak) said that Najib was presenting new economic packages in his winding-up speech, while Karpal Singh (DAP – Jelutong) said Najib was presenting a supplementary Budget speech.
In the ensuing argument between Barisan Nasional and Pakatan MPs, Anwar told Pandikar Amin that he didn’t stop anyone from interrupting his speech when he was the Finance Minister.
“I have important measures to announce. Let me present them first before I allow you to ask questions. Why are you so desperate?” Najib replied to thumps of support from the Barisan MPs.
During the noisy outbursts, Tian Chua (PKR – Batu) was ordered by Pandikar Amin to stay out of the House for the rest of the day.
Tian Chua left and a few minutes later, all Opposition MPs walked out at about 5.35pm.
At 6pm, when Najib announced that he was open to questions, only Barisan MPs and Datuk Ibrahim Ali (Independent – Pasir Mas) were left in the House.
Published: Wednesday November 5, 2008 MYT 2:33:00 PMUpdated: Wednesday November 5, 2008 MYT 2:37:38 PM
Amendments to Budget not tabled, say Opposition
By LOH FOON FONG and LISA GOH

KUALA LUMPUR: Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim commended the Deputy Speaker of the House for adjourning the Parliament session following the 2009 Budget controversies.
He said the procedure of the House had been broken when Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak presented what he called an amendment with different inflation, deficit, forecast and expenditure figures.
“This has never happened in history ... in my experience. If we present a Budget, we have the debate, and when we give the answers, those are explanations, not tabling.
“But if we are making amendments, we have to give a two-day notice,” said Anwar in a press conference after Deputy Speaker Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar called for the Parliament sitting to be adjourned.
On a question in Parliament as to why the Opposition did not bring the matter up on Tuesday, Anwar said the Opposition tried to bring up the matter “more than 30 times” but was denied the opportunity by the Speaker and the Finance Minister.
“Moreover, whether we were present or not did not matter. The Parliament rules had been broken,” he said.
Anwar also pointed out another question - that none of the new budgetary proposals amounting to a RM7bil injection have been tabled in the House.
“If that is the case, then it breaks the procedure because what was distributed to everyone was former Finance Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s Budget,” he said.
“It’s a legal procedural problem, which Datuk Najib has chosen to ignore and it is most unfortunate that a person at that level chose to ignore the law. It is a very dangerous beginning for the incoming Prime Minister. He bulldozed the case, ignored the rules and law, and want us to debate on it,” he said.
Anwar said the Finance Minister needs to give notice to the MPs on the new expenditure and items otherwise they would not know what they were expected to debate.
DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang said that these developments are unprecedented.
“What the new Finance Minister did Tuesday was most irregular, improper and unparliamentary,” he said.
“The motion passed was the 2009 Budget which has not been amended. there has to be a formal amendment of the 2009 Budget that incorporates his various proposals,” he said.
“Every sen of government allocation must be approved by Parliament. So this RM7bil injection must be approved by Parliament but the amendments were not presented before the House,” he said.
Malaysian lawyer gunned down
Wednesday November 5, 2008
Malaysian lawyer gunned down

KOTA BARU: Lawyer Kasim Cha Tong (pic), who gained fame during the 1980s as an anti-piracy enforcer, was gunned down by two assassins at his home in the Thai border town of Sungai Golok.
In the midnight incident yesterday, two assassins whose nationalities are unknown went up to his house in the town centre and knocked on the door.
When Kasim, 57, opened the door, one of the assassins opened fire. Kasim, shot in the chest, died on the spot.
The two assassins fled the scene before neighbours who heard the gunshot could react.
Sungai Golok police chief Lt Phamong Sall confirmed the incident and said 10 pellets penetrated Kasim’s body.
Although seemingly the work of a hitman, Lt Phamong said, the Thai police could not say so for certain until a full investigation was carried out.
Under Thai police procedure, it would take two to three days to prepare an interim investigative report, he added.
Kasim’s body has been taken to the Sungai Golok district hospital for a post-mortem.
Lt Phamong said it was unlikely that the murder was related to the ongoing unrest in southern Thai where three bombings occurred within minutes of each other yesterday, resulting in 62 Thai nationals injured.
Thai anti-government militants would usually either shoot a target from afar or behead a person, seldom resorting to killing someone at close range, he said in an interview.
Sungai Golok, in Narathiwat province, is the second busiest township on the Malaysia-Thai border after Haadyai, which is located in Songkhla province.
Kasim spearheaded efforts to tackle music piracy in the 1980s in the Klang Valley where commercial music was then replicated in cassettes.
He also worked extensively with the Anti-Corruption Agency in preserving the musical copyrights of foreign artistes, his work gaining the recognition of the American Music Copyrights Holders Asso- ciation.
He subsequently read Law in Britain, and on his return several years later decided to reside in Sungai Golok where, it is learnt, his family has business interests.
Kasim is originally from Kelantan, but Malaysian police intelligence operatives also believe he had acquired permanent residence status in Thailand for business reasons.