Resettlement buildings for Bengoh residents only approved now-is it an afterthought?

At the last state election the voters at the 4 affected villages voted against BN by more than 23% compared to previously. That was not enough to topple the sitting state assembly representative from BN-but perhaps enough for him to work hard to avoid similar fate at the coming general election? could this be the real reason why the fund for the resettlement was approved by the state government cabinet only recently-so the building of the houses can proceed from now? One would think that building houses to house the affected residents would be a priority when the dam was built-not after the dam was finished!
Houses for re-settlers priority

by Peter Sibon reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on January 20, 2012, Friday

RM20m approved to build Rumah Mesra houses for those affected by Bengoh Dam

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Did Bersih2 not heard the `music’ already?

In a move meant to warn the pro-free election group Bersih the de-facto Minister of law said that Bersih will `face the music’ if they take to the street again. The news is strange: didn’t Bersih 2 on July 9th given that treatment already? What is new here? After the `Freedom of Assembly’ bill a minister is refuting it in action by objecting to a citizen group trying to test the `freedom of assembly’ ! Or was it really a `Ban on assembly’ bill? ANyway the interesting thing from his speech was: he claimed to have more support from the voters than the NGO that brought tens of thousands of citizens-who risj `facing the music’ -to speak out for free poll. Is it true? The anti-free poll group tried to rally their supporters to rival Bersih rally. They didn’t succeed-whether from the UMNO Youth group or Perkasa. So: what is he talking about? If citizens can’t assemble to express their opinions peacefully is it not prove enough that there is no free poll in the country? How can a party go about spreading its ideas if they can’t assemble their supporters? May be this is the point: they just don’t want to allow free contest of ideas/policies -so they stop anyone other than themselves to hold public assemblies.

If Bersih 3.0 takes to streets, they’ll face the music

Hazlan Zakaria
Should the pro-electoral reform group Bersih take to the streets yet again, it will face the music, de facto law minister Nazri Aziz warns.

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