Groups blast 'cancel Deepavali, Wesak hols' call

The call by the chairperson of the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Chamber of Commerce for the public holidays of Deeapavali and Wesak to be cancelled and made into normal working days has raised the ire of groups, who have demanded that the remark be retracted and an apology issued. William Cheng (left)  had reportedly lamented as 'too many' the number of public  holidays for being bad for business. The government should consider cancelling Deepavali and Wesak Day, Cheng was said to have proposed, as only a “minority” group of people celebrate the occasions. Expressing “shock” at his statement today, DAP said expressed its “strongest objection” against the proposal.

Tricubes pins hope on EPF, IRB notices to sustain myemail.my

KUALA LUMPUR, April 20 — Tricubes Berhad will spend RM5.3 million first for the 1 Malaysia email project but will embark on a pension and tax notification initiative to sustain the service that many say is unnecessary.The IT company, which is currently in danger of being delisted from Bursa Malaysia for financial irregularities, said a slew of value-added services will be enough to pay for the total RM50 million outlay at no cost to the government or the public.The myemail.my service will threaten Pos Malaysia Berhad’s postal services for the Employees Provident Fund and Internal Revenue Board. Credit card firms and online portals, such as myeg.com.my, already provide payment facilities for such services.

KL public transport not convenient

PETALING JAYA: Why are the Klang Valley residents so reluctant to use public transport? The simple answer is: it is so inconvenient. And traffic jams will continue to be a part of everyday life unless the government comes up with a plan to encourage people to use public transport.Urban planner and International Islamic University of Malaysia professor Alias Abdullah told FMT that very few thought of public transport as convenient.“You can take your car anywhere you like, but you can’t do the same with the LRT (Light Rail Transit) or the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit).”

‘Cancel public holidays for Deepavali, Wesak’

KUALA LUMPUR: Tamil newspapers are abuzz with reports that a Chinese business figure has urged the government not to give public holidays for Deepavali and Wesak Day.According to the reports, the chairman of the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Chamber of Commerce, William Cheng, had complained about the nation having too many public holidays.He said that the current 17 public holidays were bad for business.

Cheng then purportedly said the government should consider cancelling the public holidays for Deepavali and Wesak Day because the festivals involved “minority” groups.

All Malaysians to get official 1 Malaysia email a/c

PUTRAJAYA, April 19 — Malaysians aged 18 and above will be given a secure 1 Malaysia email account for official purposes, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today.The email account will allow direct and secure communication between citizens and the government, and is part of a new one-stop web portal for government services.The web portal will be developed by Tricubes Berhad and will provide services such as social networking, online bill payment and citizen application development.

Ambiga barred from entering Sarawak

KUALA LUMPUR: Bersih 2.0 chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan was today barred from entering Sarawak, on the eve of the state election. This is the fourth such incident in the past two weeks.Ambiga, a former Bar Council president, landed in Kuching at about 9am, but was told she could not proceed.She said that she had been informed she had been barred following orders from Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s office.No further reason was given.

“I told the authorities that under Section 67 of the Immigration Act, I should be allowed to enter if there were legitimate political reasons to do so. They told me that they didn’t know anything about it.”Ambiga described the treatment of activists as “appalling”, questioning why the state government did not see fit to allow them entrance.“We as Malaysians should be allowed entrance to the other states of our own nation. I’m anxious to find out what they are trying to hide by doing this.”

Southern battle: Tamil Nadu, Kerala go to polls

CHENNAI: Over 40 millions voters in Tamil Nadu will cast their ballots today, to decide the future of the prosperous state in South India.After a high-voltage campaign that ended on Monday, polling falls on the eve of the Tamil New Year, a day that would decide the political fates of South Indian heavyweights such as M Karunanidhi, leader of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), and former actress J Jayalalitha, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AADMK) supremo.“A cocktail of local, national and state level issues will feature in this election prominently.

“And it will be an important one, as it will send a political message, especially on corruption that had been the mainstay of the political discourse this time,” GVL Narasimha Rao, a political analyst and head of Development and Research Services told Bernama.