Archive for April, 2008
Number Of New HIV Cases Hit Record High Of 422 In 2007
SINGAPORE: Latest figures from the Ministry of Health (MOH) showed 422 new cases of HIV infection were detected in Singapore in 2007, the highest in a single year since 1985. MOH added that 93 per cent of the cases were men.
This brings the total number of reported cases as of end-2007 to 3,482. Out of these cases, 1,534 are carriers showing no symptoms, while 804 have AIDS-related illnesses and 1,144 have died.
MOH said sexual transmission remains the main mode of HIV infection resulting in 95 per cent of the new cases. Out of the 422 new cases, 255 were infected during heterosexual sex. Meanwhile, 130 of them caught HIV through homosexual activity, a 38 per cent rise compared to 2006.
One reason for the increase in this group could be due to more screening.
29 per cent of homosexuals had their HIV detected during voluntary screening compared to just 5 per cent of heterosexuals. Action for Aids said this is a result of greater awareness arising from more intensive and targeted campaigns for men who have sex with men.
Meanwhile, infection via intravenous drug use halved from 14 cases in 2006 to seven last year.
One case saw HIV being contracted through blood transfusion overseas and is the first such reported case in the past six years.
57 per cent of all new cases reported in 2007 were Singapore citizens and permanent residents between 30 and 49 years of age. About one-eighth of the cases were between 20 and 29 years of age.
Ten people aged under 20 were diagnosed HIV positive. Of these, one was a baby infected by his mother during pregnancy.
Action for Aids said: “More young persons are having sex and at a younger age. Programmes meant for young people must address all aspects of sexual behaviour, including homosexuality and condom use, otherwise those most at risk will not be helped.”
According to the ministry, 53 per cent of the new cases already had late stage HIV infection when they were diagnosed.
Only 13 per cent of new cases were detected through voluntary screening, while most had their HIV status detected while they were undergoing some form of medical care.
In its annual HIV/AIDS update, the health ministry urged those engaging in high-risk sexual behaviour to use condoms properly and go for HIV testing regularly. - CNA/vm
Channel News Asia
Nepal’s King Denies Speculation He Will Be Heading Into Exile
KATHMANDU : Nepal’s King Gyanendra on Monday angrily denied speculation he will be heading into exile following a victory by former Maoist rebels in landmark elections.
A statement from the royal palace rejected what it said were “malicious reports appearing in sections of the national and international media in recent days against the royal palace.”
“The reports referred to are about his majesty going to India,” a palace source told AFP.
“He will not be going anywhere. He is not going to leave the country.”
Nepal’s Maoists are on track to win the largest single bloc of seats in an assembly that will rewrite the country’s constitution.
The vote count is expected to end on Tuesday, and the Maoists are expected to win at least 240 seats in a 601-member constitutional assembly — making them the dominant party and just short of holding an outright majority.
The ultra-leftists said they intend to abolish Nepal’s 240-year-old monarchy as quickly as possible, and have called on Gyanendra to leave the palace “gracefully” rather than be forcibly evicted.
They have also warned the king of “a trial and strong punishment” if he refuses to accept life as a commoner in one of the world’s poorest nations.
Gyanendra came to the throne in bizarre and tragic circumstances in 2001, when his popular brother and eight other family members were shot dead by a drunk, drugged, love-sick and suicidal crown prince.
The new monarch and his son Paras — loathed for his reported playboy lifestyle — failed to win the hearts and minds of a public that viewed the pair’s survival of the palace massacre as deeply suspicious.
In 2005 he seized absolute power to fight the Maoists, but instead fuelled a wave of republican sentiment that led to mainstream parties striking a historic 2006 peace deal with the rebels, ending a decade of civil war.
Gyanendra has since been stripped of all his powers, including his role as head of state and army commander.
He has faced numerous demands to step down quietly, but has so far refused to do so.
Analysts said the king can still count on support from sections of the army and Hindu fundamentalists who see him as the incarnation of a Hindu god.
- AFP/vm
Channel News Asia
He’s In This For The Youth
Q: Who are you?
A: I started my career in 1976 as a consultant under the tutelage of the late Tun Ismail Ali when he was chairman of the Malaysian Industrial Development Finance (MIDF) Bhd.
He was very strict. Files would fly when he was unhappy with the way a job was done.
Once I remarked that politics was dirty. He looked at me and said: “Politics is not dirty, young man, it is the people who make it dirty.”
In 1980, I went to do my Master of Science in Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I also did my internship there. When I returned in 1982, I headed the consulting office in MIDF and later joined Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) as head of corporate services.
I left PNB in 1985 for UEM to be the project director for the first major privatisation project in the country, the North-South Expressway. When the project was completed, I left to set up my own management practice, Turnaround Managers Incorporated, in 1987.
I also worked in the United States and turned around an oil and gas drilling company, Hercules Offshore Corporation in Houston. We bought the bankrupt company for US$20 million (RM64 million) in 1993 and sold it for US$200 million in 1996.
I went abroad because I was tired of people saying that Bumiputeras always needed a leg up to succeed. There’s no tougher place to be in the oil and gas industry than in Houston.
I returned to Malaysia and became the executive chairman of public-listed oil and gas company Trenergy Bhd in 1997.
We built the first floating processing storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel locally. Oil is pumped from the middle of the sea to the FPSO and processed.
As a hobby, I built the Marang Resort and Safari in Terengganu which won the International Real Estate Federation’s best international resort award in 1996. In the previous year, the award was given to Disneyland Paris.
I shut down the resort when my (first) wife Noraini Kassim died (in 2000).
Q: Why are you in politics?
A: I’m in politics for the youth of the country. Why are politicians fighting over stale issues that have been around for the last 50 years?
I feel sorry for those in the 35 to 40 age bracket. Generally, they are politically stunted because they grew up under a regime which did not allow them to take part in politics or develop a political opinion when their minds were most open.
That is why we hear about many young people talking through their noses. I actually worry about the dearth of political thinking among the young.
I will try to make sure this is a party for the future, filled with young people. If you ask a young person today why he wants to join politics, he would say: “Saya nak kaya (I want to be rich). Berbakti kepada bangsa dan negara? (To serve the country and nation) That’s crap to them.
Q: You mentioned before that you have no interest in politics. Why did you accept the job of PKR secretary-general?
A: Honestly, I’m still thinking about it. I wasn’t looking forward to a life of a politician.
There is nothing wrong with politics. It’s just that I’m a very private person and I value my privacy. I’m not used to doing a job half-way.
If I get involved in something, I make sure I do it all the way. I have been involved in politics for a long time. I just did not step in front. I was the organising secretary for PKR from 2004 to 2007 and that was a big job.
I still want to be able to have my teh tarik in my slippers and shorts and this does not fit the stereotype of a politician.
Q: What made you dislike politics?
A: My father Hashim Gera was a Pas politician and he was the MP for Parit. I didn’t like what I saw.
As a child, I used to wonder why everyone’s problems became my father’s problems.
At the beginning of the school year, people came to see him and ask for school fees when we, his children, barely had enough.
But the reason I’m in politics is also because of my father. My father had wanted to be a lawyer and on his deathbed, he told me to join politics.
My father was a true patriot and nationalist. When he was 85 and very ill, he asked my mother when I was going to stop wasting my time making money and go back to the rakyat.
Q: You chose to be in the backroom instead of the forefront. Will this matter in your current role?
A: It’s just my personal preference. I think I can do a lot in this job without being in the forefront. Having said that, this is still a big step for me at the age of 57.
My late wife, a lawyer, passed away in 2000. She was my best friend. I closed shop and disappeared for two years.
I stopped my practice and liquidated my assets. I decided enough was enough. I had never lost before then. I always fight to win and I lost her. It was devastating. I have a 25-year-old daughter in the United States and I went to be with her. I came back and got involved in PKR.
Come to think of it, my real passion is politics. I was an active student leader. I was involved in the Baling demonstration with PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and activist Hishamuddin Rais.
It’s just being a politician that kind of throws me off. Then I met Hirdah Haron, who was in advertising, fell in love and married her in 2004.
We have a 2-year-old son, Umarmuktar. What I’m doing now with my 2-year-old, I wouldn’t miss for anything in the world. When you have a child in your retirement, his whole day is your day.
Q: What did your wife say about you taking up this post?
A: She gave her blessings. I joined the party when it was trounced in the 2004 general election and this time when we won, I packed up and went home to Ipoh.
I thought I should quit while I’m ahead. I never spoke to my daughter about politics. I sent her to boarding school when she was in her pre-teens as my wife was sick and I could not cope.
When we won this year, my daughter called me and asked me where I was and when I told her, she lectured me on the responsibility of keeping my election promises. I then got a call from Anwar and he told me it had been decided that I should be the secretary-general.
Q: What is your main focus for the party?
A: To make sure this organisation has the infrastructure that will allow it to take on a bigger responsibility. Once that’s done, when I’ve turned this “car” into a “Ferrari”, I’ll probably go.
Q: Why did you join PKR when your father was from Pas?
A: My father was kicked out of the party in 1970. He danced the joget at a function and his picture was plastered all over the newspapers the next day. Pas did not take too kindly to this. I can understand that.
Q: People have likened Anwar to a chameleon, that he plays to the gallery and has no principles. What is your comment on this?
A: What do you expect? You may appear to have to be everything to everyone to get to the top. The man who will lead the country is the one who can communicate with everyone.
For example, I was running Nurul Izzah Anwar’s (Lembah Pantai MP) campaign. I don’t like ceramah. I wanted to go to the people who had not made up their minds and those who didn’t come out, like the urban Malay housewives. So we sent pamphlets to them.
People say: “Hey, you’re a fraud. You say one thing in Bangsar and in other places you say something else.”
Does that make us chameleons? I don’t think so. This makes us pragmatic because we take cognisance of the diversity of the population.
Anwar may, of course, have taken positions which are quite different from those he took when he was in the government.
By the concept of collective responsibility, he was just as responsible then. But did Anwar deny it? He didn’t. He has taken positions serially, not concurrently. People say he says A over here and B over there. That’s not true. I know him since school days.
Why do you use the word “chameleon”? Why not say “versatile” or “open minded”?
Q: Why do you trust him?
A: What was done to him was wrong. If you don’t fight injustices like that, they might come after you next. People in power must always be checked. It’s not a question of trust.
Do you trust the driver who is driving you or the cook who prepares your meal? The cook might spit in your food and you will not know.
At the end of the day, you choose what’s best based on the choices available.
I think Anwar is worthy of anybody’s choice. When he had a choice of going away in exile or going to jail, he chose jail. Do you think he spent six years suffering for nothing?
Q: What are your plans for the party?
A: We intend to go on a membership drive. We have over 300,000 members and we plan to increase this to 600,000 by the end of the year.
We may also have to amend our constitution.
We used to have branches like Umno, MCA and MIC but we will have no more branches because it is tedious to fulfil the requirements of the Registrar of Societies. Our request last year to the registrar to have no branches has not received any reply, so technically we are still allowed to have branches.
Q: How are you going to be different from other secretaries-general of political parties?
A: I’m tougher at enforcing. I intend to be administratively strict. You have no idea how difficult that is going to be.
It’s like going after a girl for ages and when you finally get her to agree to a date, she turns up one hour late. Are you going to scold her for that?
It’s the function of political parties to establish a means where truth can be ascertained by the electorate. That is why I will pursue the approval of our newspaper licences.
I will ask for everything due to us under the law. We are a registered party. We are legitimate, we are not gangsters.
Q: Wee Choo Keong, Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj and Dr Nasir Hashim won seats on the PKR ticket. Will you try to get them to join PKR?
A: We do that every day to everybody we can. We’re trying to convince them that we will never lose touch with the people.
Anwar never misses out on time with the people. That’s why ordinary people like him. People feel touched by him.
Q: You did not seem to have much success in Sabah and Sarawak. What are your plans there?
A: We have made progress there but maybe not as much as we wanted to. In the last election, there was no electoral pact in Sabah and Sarawak.
It is sad because we could have easily have won seven or eight seats. Our resources were spread thin fighting two other parties.
Who are we to impose on the Sabahans and Sarawakians our method of doing things?
That is why Anwar said we will give them 20 per cent oil royalty payment when we are in power. These are rich states with intelligent people.
How are we going to expand our presence there? By giving Sabah and Sarawak due recognition and enough room to feel part and parcel of the Malaysian ideology.
I’m planning a visit to Sarawak that will take at least a month.
I must go to each constituency and be there for two or three days and ask the members what they want and what will make them happier with us. We want to serve.
Q: You’re from Malay College Kuala Kangsar. Who were the other famous personalities in your batch?
A: Datuk Shahrir Samad (domestic trade and consumer affairs minister) was one year junior to Anwar. Pas secretary-general Datuk Kamaruddin Jaafar and Foreign Ministry secretary-general Tan Sri Rastam Mohd Isa were my classmates for seven years.
Activist Hishamuddin was also there as well as businessman Tan Sri Halim Saad and blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin. Tan Sri Hassan Merican, the president and chief executive officer of Petronas, was my classmate.
MCKK is a school that is supposed to produce leaders. Now, schools just produce students with 10As or 20As.
In MCKK, we were given freedom to think. For our general paper, the teacher would ask us what we wanted to talk about.
Once, we said porn and we actually had a discussion on the merits and demerits of porn. It did not make us into sexual fiends, did it?
Q: What was Anwar like in school?
A: The day-to-day running of the school was done by the prefects and Anwar was a prefect. He exemplified the same leadership qualities that he has now.
He was an activist even then. Every night except Saturdays, we have prep, which is like a compulsory study period.
That was when we learned to arrange our books in such a way that we could sleep without being detected!
Friday nights were prep nights but Anwar would often organise compulsory religious ceramah, even bringing in speakers from outside.
Once we had Tan Sri Dr Tan Chee Khoon and he made an impression on me.
Q: Why did Anwar choose you?
A: I don’t know. I would like to think it’s because he wants to tighten up operations and that he thinks I’m the most qualified person.
New Straits Times