Malaysians in recession-hit Singapore face retrenchment

Wednesday October 22, 2008

JOHOR BARU: Tens of thousands of Malaysian workers from the services and manufacturing sectors in Singapore will be retrenched when employers, hit by the recession, start downsizing in the island republic.

Though the recession has not translated to retrenchment, Malay-sian workers in Singapore are starting to feel jittery over the prospect of losing their jobs if the country’s economy takes a turn for the worse.

At the same time, Johor is taking early steps, including playing job matchmaker, to ensure those retren-ched can quickly be matched with jobs available locally.

For many Malaysians working in Singapore, the main concern is how to continue supporting their families if they are retrenched. Some said they were willing to take a pay cut and return to Malaysia. Others were even prepared take up two jobs back home to supplement their income.

Single mother Karen Lee is worried she may not be able to support her only daughter through college if she loses her job.

“My daughter is taking her SPM this year and plans to further her studies in Taiwan,” said the factory operator, adding that she was willing to take up a job in Malaysia at a lower salary if she were retrenched.

Lee, who earns S$1,500 (RM3,600) a month, stays in a rented room in Woodlands, Singapore while her daughter lives with her mother in Johor Baru.

Technician N. Soomu, 34, who was retrenched in 2002, said the experience was a nightmare.

This time around, he is taking steps to safeguard his job including taking up a technical course.

Soomu has been working in Singapore for the past 10 years and earns about S$1,200. He travels daily to Singapore from Johor Baru as it is cheaper to live in Johor.

Johor Unity, Human Resource, Science, Technology and Innovation committee chairman M. Asojan said there were many job opportunities within Iskandar Malaysia.

“We need 4,000 people for the oil and gas sector alone,” he said.

Johor Labour Department deputy director Ruzita Bahari advised locals to visit its website at jobsmalaysia.gov.my or contact the department at 07-2275080 for job opportunities.

According to Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam, some 300,000 Malaysians are working in Singapore.

Najib: Country not in financial crisis

Published: Monday October 20, 2008 MYT 11:01:00 AM
Updated: Monday October 20, 2008 MYT 9:44:29 PM

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is not in financial crisis and “we should not talk ourselves into one,” said Finance Minister Datuk Najib Tun Razak.

However, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for 2009 would be reviewed downwards from the projected 5.4% in the view of the worsening global financial crisis, Najib said on Monday.

"While we are confident of the resilience of our financial sector, we are mindful that the financial turmoil in markets elsewhere will bear consequences on the real economies there as well as globally.

“As a result, the Malaysian real economy will inevitable be negatively impacted,” he said during his keynote address at the Khazanah Megatrends Forum on Monday.

The Government would also inject RM5bil to double the size of ValueCap Sdn Bhd set up in 2003 to invest in undervalued companies.

Foreign Investment Committee (FIC) guidelines would also be reviewed to attract more foreign investors especially in property and commercial sectors, said Najib, giving a preview of the measures to be put in place to cushion the Malaysia from the impact of external developments.

The details of a financial stabilisation plan would be presented during the winding up speech in Parliament on Nov 4 as the global markets were still volatile and the Government and Bank Negara needed time to study the developments carefully before finalising the plan, he said.

Other measures include Bank Negara’s announcement to guarantee all deposits up to December 2010 and the strengthening of Small and Medium Enterprises and related financial institutions.

“Part of the government policy response to manage the global and financial crisis is to ensure that our global competitiveness in attracting foreign and domestic investment is in-tact.”

He said the liberalisation of the service sector, which was the main GDP contributor, would be detailed and based on a proposal by the International Trade and Industry Ministry to be proposed soon in Cabinet. Najib expressed confidence that domestic consumption would remain robust but added that short-term measures to tackle external financial turmoil, should not come at the expense the country’s long-term development imperatives and competitiveness.

“We are mindful that we have to take steps to ensure long term competitiveness whilst managing short term crisis, but we must not forget our long term position as a nation that is able to compete much more effectively,” he told reporters.

Many dead in Tibet earthquake

At least 30 people are said to have been killed in two earthquakes that struck Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, and surrounding areas, Chinese state media reports.

According to the US Geological Survey, the first earthquake on Monday measured 6.6 on the Richter Scale and struck at 4.30pm (0830 GMT), 80km west of Lhasa.

The second tremor, measuring 5.1, hit about 15 minutes later, approximately 96km west of Lhasa.

The Xinhua news agency said that 30 people had died after the first quake struck, and that houses had collapsed near the epicentre.

China's state Seismological Bureau said the initial earthquake occurred in Dangxiong county, which has a population of about 42,000 people, mostly herdsmen.

"I felt the building shaking a little bit and saw a bench overturn," said Ge San, an employee at the Baima Hotel in Dangxiong, who was sitting in a room with about five other employees.

"The shaking was not heavy. We stayed in the room and were not frightened."

CPO futures hit limit-down

KUALA LUMPUR: Crude palm oil (CPO) futures hit limit-down briefly in morning trade on Monday, putting pressure on plantation stocks, as investors worried about the possible fallout from a global economic slowdown.

CPO for third-month delivery fell the 10% limit, down RM200 to RM1,800 a tonne as investors worried about the impact of a slowdown on commodities. It was down RM184 to RM1,816 at midday.

At 12.30pm, the KL Composite Index was down 8.48 points to 1,008.22. Turnover was 148.19 million shares valued at RM312.32mil. There were 92 gainers, 342 losers while 166 counters were unchanged.

Asian markets fell, with Hong Kong’s hang Seng Index down 3.31% or 585.69 points to 17,096.71, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 4.25% to 10,473.17 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index 3.28% to 2,221.82.

Taiwan’s Weighted Index fell 3.5% to 5,541.22 while Shanghai’s A Share Index, which resumed trading after one-week closure, fell 3.52% to 2,324.17. Thailand’s SET slid 3.61% to 568.75

Light crude oil lost US$1.76 to US$92.12 as concerns about the fallout from the global financial crisis and the impact on commodities.

KL Kepong fell 45 sen to RM8.60, Asiatic and United Plantations 20 sen each to RM4.28 and RM11 while Chin Teck gave up 15 sen to RM6.10. IOI Corp fell eight sen to RM4.02 in active trade.

Among the heavyweights, Sime Darby rose 10 sen to RM6.70 while Telekom added two sen to RM3.42 and Maybank unchanged at RM6.60.

Other decliners were MSC, down 34 sen to RM4.20, Petronas Dagangan 25 sen to RM6.60 and Heitech Padu 24 sen to 90 sen.

Kim Loong-WA was the top gainer, up 11 sen to RM88 sen while Selangor Properties added six sen to RM2.88, Southern Acids and YTL five sen each to RM1.67 and RM6.20.

PM to announce decision on Tues or Wed

KUALA LUMPUR: KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will announce his decision on whether he would defend the Umno presidency either tomorrow or by Wednesday.

The Prime Minister also hopes to hold a Barisan Nasional supreme council meeting on Wednesday to brief component party leaders on the revised leadership transition plan.

Abdullah, who is also Umno president, said Barisan leaders had indicated their wish to be briefed on the plan and what to expect since the Umno president would also become the coalition’s chairman and the nation’s prime minister.

Some Barisan leaders had voiced their unhappiness over the lack of consultation within Barisan over the change in the transition plan.

Abdullah and his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had earlier agreed to a handing over of power in 2010, but the plan was brought forward with no date specified.

Umno’s general assembly and elections of top party posts has been moved from December this year to March 2009 to facilitate an early transfer of power.

The Prime Minister declined to reveal if he would also announce on Wednesday his decision on whether to defend his Umno presidency. He has said he will do so by Oct 9, when Umno divisions start their meetings.

“I will decide that by tomorrow (Tuesday) or Wednesday, you wait lah ... why so impatient?” he told reporters after chairing the third meeting of the Biotech International Advisory Panel at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on Monday.

When pressed further on whether he had actually already made his decision, he said: “If I tell you, then I am announcing it now. I am not intending to announce it now, right? You wait. After all, two, three or fours days is not too long, right?”

Asked if the Umno members who had offered themselves for the No 2 post had jumped he gun, he said it was their choice on when to announce their intention.

“Whether they want to announce early or whether they want to wait, it is entirely up to them,” he said.

Asked if the offers for candidacy was healthy for the party, he replied: “Believe me, after a while some of them will drop out, and in the end there may be only two, maybe even only one left.” On his key focus for his remaining time as Prime Minister, he said he still had work to do and he intended to fulfil the pledge on reforms he had made in the Barisan 2004 election manifesto.

“I know Datuk Zaid Ibrahim is not there anymore (referring to the de facto law minister who had resigned), but it does not mean that everything must stop.

“It was not his idea in the first place, it was mine, it was the 2004 manifesto, remember,” he said on judicial reforms that Zaid had been undertaking.

“What I promised, I must deliver,” Abdullah added.

ISA taint To a question on whether the recent Internal Security Act (ISA) detention of a journalist and an opposition Member of Parliament had tainted Malaysia’s image, he said the Home Minister was empowered to decided on such matters and had his reasons.

He said that it was unfortunate if this caused others to view Malaysia negatively, but every country had its own security measures, some even tougher than the ISA.

When pointed out that it was the ISA arrests that had caused Zaid to resign, Abdullah said: “The law minister is not involved (in the ISA decision) and it is the exclusivity of the Home Minister.”

Oil falls below $90 a barrel

• STORY HIGHLIGHTS
• Light, sweet crude for November delivery was down $4.69 to $89.19 a barrel
  
• Oil prices have tumbled nearly 40 percent since peaking in July
  
• Drop came amid growing anxiety that bad debt crisis is enveloping Europe
  
• Investors will be watching if OPEC Countries move to cut output
  

Simpson jury: We relied on tapes, not witnesses

(CNN) -- The jury that convicted O.J. Simpson of robbery and other charges relied mostly on audio and video evidence -- and very little on testimony from prosecution witnesses -- jury members said Sunday.

"We honestly felt we could not rely on that witness testimony," said Michelle R. Lyons, one of seven jurors who spoke to reporters in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Sunday. "There was not one decision we made that was based only on witness testimony."

Jury foreman Paul Connelly said some of the prosecution's witnesses didn't seem trustworthy. At least three former Simpson co-defendants who cut deals to testify in the case had criminal records.

Asked whether the jury trusted the witnesses, Connelly answered: "Not entirely, no." 

Prosecutors produced an audiotape of the confrontation in which authorities said Simpson and five men burst into a Las Vegas, Nevada, hotel on September 13, 2007. The men allegedly made off with pillowcases containing Simpson sports memorabilia.

Several jurors said audiotapes of the incident and conversations between Simpson and others that were recorded surreptitiously before, during and after the heist made the prosecution's case.

"It would have been a weak case" without the tapes, juror Dora Pettit said.

The jury of nine women and three men found Simpson and co-defendant Clarence "C.J." Stewart guilty Friday of 12 charges, including conspiracy to commit a crime, robbery, assault and kidnapping with a deadly weapon.

Simpson, 61, could get life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for December 5 in Las Vegas.

Prosecutors alleged that Simpson, a former football star, led a group of men who used threats, guns and force to take the memorabilia and other items from memorabilia dealers Bruce Fromong and Al Beardsley.

Four men who had been charged with Simpson cut deals with the prosecution and testified against him. One testified that Simpson instructed him to bring a gun to the hotel encounter.

"Everything was based on the recordings," juror Dora Pettit said of the panel's decisions.

Simpson, who did not testify during the trial, told police he didn't know the people with him were armed. He also claimed the items had been stolen from him, and the hotel encounter was just about him retrieving his items.

Simpson's lawyer has indicated he plans to appeal the conviction, partly because some of the jurors had indicated during jury selection that they disagreed with a 1995 verdict in which he was acquitted of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

Teresa Owens, one of the jurors in the Simpson robbery case, said any suggestion that the jury found Simpson guilty because of the verdict 13 years ago is "terrible."

"There's reports right now that we've had some kind of vendetta against Mr. Simpson for ... 13 years ago," she said. "That in no way had anything to do with this case whatsoever."

Connelly said the murder trial "never came up."

"I don't think it was on anybody's minds. For that, I can say I'm proud of the jury," he said.

Before the robbery and kidnapping trial, the jurors promised they could disregard Simpson's past and solely consider the evidence against him and Stewart, 54.

Owens also said it would be "preposterous" for anyone suggest that the makeup of the jury -- 11 jurors were white, and one said she was Hispanic, while Simpson is black -- hurt the defense's chances.

"They chose us. Five hundred people ... filled out these questionnaires," Owens said. "They had the [opportunity] to pass us."

Pettit said the jury has been painted by some "as an all-white jury that hates O.J."

"That's just not true," she said. "It couldn't be further from the truth."

Asked whether they felt the crime was bad enough to warrant life sentences, Connelly said that was up for the court to decide.

Pettit said that "if he walked out tomorrow, I'd be fine with that."

However, she said Simpson had to be found guilty and that his argument about just wanting to recover his own things didn't work.

"Under Nevada law ... even if you're recovering your own stuff, you can't do it in the manner that they all went in and did it," Pettit said

Dow Jones hits four-year low as markets dive

(CNN) -- The Dow Jones on Monday fell below 10,000 points for the first time since 2004 as U.S. stocks followed Europe and Asia with heavy losses after government bank bailouts on both sides of the Atlantic failed to stem slowdown fears.

The index was hovering above the 9,800 mark as a 4.8 percent drop added to days of losses amid unrelenting financial turmoil.

London's FTSE 100, Germany's Dax France's CAC all saw significant drops with indexes falling several percentage points.

The declines were led by the banking industry, with the mining and oil industries also suffering drops. Troubled bank HBOS's share price dropped 13.4 percent, while the Royal Bank of Scotland fell 14.6 percent.

In Russia, trading in shares was suspended after the RTS stock index fell more than 15 percent. Iceland's exchange was also closed while the government rushed to draft a plan to deal with the financial turmoil's impact on its over-leveraged banking sector.

The slump followed a weekend in which Germany's private financial sector promised to put up an additional €15 billion ($20.3 billion), in addition to the €35 billion already pledged, to help shore up Hypo Real Estate bank, the nation's Finance Ministry said Sunday.  Watch more about the growing chaos »

In France, BNP Paribas committed to taking a 75-percent stake in troubled European bank Fortis NV, and Sweden and Denmark followed Ireland and Britain in raising the amount of savers' deposits guaranteed by the government.

Candy containing melanine has appeared on in Connecticut stores

HARTFORD, Conn. - A chemical blamed for sickening infants in China has been found in candy on American shelves.

Connecticut consumer protection Commissioner Jerry Farrell Jr. said Wednesday that tests on White Rabbit Creamy Candy found melamine.

The candy has been found in stores in Connecticut. It was imported from China and sold primarily at Asian markets.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended last week that consumers not eat White Rabbit candy and that retailers remove it. Queensway Foods Company Inc. of California distributed the candy and says it is recalling it.

Melamine is used in plastics manufacturing and has been associated with contaminated infant formula and other Chinese products containing milk protein

Parents file lawsuit in China against dairy firm

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Lawyer will know next week whether or not Henan court will take the case
  
• One of the sick child's parents seeks $22,000 in compensation from Sanlu 
  
• China: 15 more companies accused of selling tainted products
  
• Tainted milk formula has killed 4 infants and sickened 50,000 others
  

Palin, Biden ready to face off in St. Louis debate

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Joe Biden and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will face off for their first and only debate in the presidential race Thursday night, an event pitting a political veteran against a political newcomer.


Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been preparing since last week for Thursday's debate.
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Both candidates have recently tried to lower expectations leading into the debate, where topics will range from domestic to foreign policy.

The debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, will start at 9 p.m. ET and be moderated by PBS's Gwen Ifill.

For Palin, the stakes are high. After skyrocketing onto the national stage and energizing the Republican faithful, the first-term Alaskan governor has struggled recently to regain her footing after several shaky network TV interviews with ABC's Charlie Gibson and CBS's Katie Couric. View memorable moments from other debates »

Palin said Tuesday that she's different.

"I think they're just not used to someone coming in from the outside saying, 'You know what? It's time that normal Joe Six-Pack American is finally represented in the position of vice presidency,' and I think that that's kind of taken some people off-guard," she said in a radio interview with conservative host Hugh Hewitt.

Palin's interview gave the vice presidential candidate a chance to showcase elements of her life story and demonstrate some of the folksiness that's been central to her political success.

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Biden, Palin have different missions in debate
It's exactly the kind of interview that voters can expect to see from the governor in the coming weeks, according to a Palin adviser, who recognized that there is hunger in Republican circles and among the public at large to see a less-scripted, more authentic candidate.

"We're going to be continue to put her in settings where she has an opportunity to shine, to be on offense," the adviser said. "We've gotten very good feedback from the public from Hugh Hewitt interview."

The adviser suggested that the campaign's efforts at damage control after Palin's interview with Couric may have been hampered by the fact that the governor wasn't doing more friendly interviews to counter her flubs on Russia and the congressional bailout bill, which have reverberated throughout the blogosphere and even turned Palin into a punch line on "Saturday Night Live."

"We acknowledge that perhaps she should have been out there doing more," the adviser said, arguing that "it's not fair to judge her off one or two sound bites" from the network interviews.

Palin is apparently eager to take on a more outspoken role, both in interviews and in her stump speech, after Thursday's vice presidential debate in order to remind voters of what it is they like about her.

"She connects really well, and she's good at it, and she wants to be doing more of it, and she will do more of it," the adviser said.

For the Democrats, Biden has served in the Senate for 35 years. His biggest challenge will be to stick to the script. He's known for making off-the-cuff remarks, including some gaffes. Watch analysts weigh in on Thursday's debate »

A Biden aide said the senator is ready. He left Wednesday's debate preparation in Delaware to vote on the economic recovery bill in Congress.

"I haven't read the package yet, but my anticipation is I'm going to vote 'yes.' But I want to see. That's why I'm going home now to get briefed on the details," Biden said.

Biden campaign aides are actively playing up Palin's debating skills. His spokesman called Palin "a leviathan of forensics," a classic example of the campaign tactic of raising the expectations of their opponent and lowering their own.

"She's very skilled, and she'll be well-prepared," Barack Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, said Sunday night while flying with Biden back to Delaware to help him get ready.

"As you saw at the convention, she can be very good. So, I think it would be foolish to assume that this isn't going to be a really challenging debate. We're preparing for that, on that assumption."

Taking it one step further, Biden spokesman David Wade added, "he's going in here to debate a leviathan of forensics who has debated five times, and she's undefeated."

Biden has a difficult task on his hand: not coming across as condescending with his decades of experience and not adopting a tone that could appear as though he's treating Palin differently because she's a woman.

"I think Gov. Palin is a skilled politician," Axelrod said. "She got elected in a very tough political arena against tough opponents, and we're going to treat her with the respect that she deserves. And I think that she would expect that; I think voters should expect that."

Axelrod argued that at the end of the day, the choice voters make is between the candidates at the top of the ticket and not the vice presidential candidates.



However, he said vice presidential nominees have a harder time preparing because they need to not only defend their own positions but those of their running mates, as well as knowing where both candidates on the opposing ticket stand.

Obama and John McCain, meanwhile, have two more debates before the November 4 general election: a second debate October 7 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a final debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, on October 15.

20 road fatalities on first day of Raya

PETALING JAYA: Another 20 road fatalities were recorded on the first day of Hari Raya, bringing the death toll to 125 by the ninth day of Ops Sikap XXVII.

According to a statement from the police, a total of 881 accident cases were recorded, with the bulk of it occurring on federal (246), state (171) and municipal roads (295).

Out of the 20 fatalities, eight were motorcyclists while nine were motorists. Three pedestrians also died on the roads on Oct 1.

A total of 3,511 traffic summonses were issued on the same day.

Ops Sikap XXVII started on Sept 24 and ends on Oct 8.