For example, I brought my grand-daughter who lives in Sydney to this leisure facility for her swimming lessons. I am impressed by the pools available for different ages (including senior citizens) but even more impressive is the orderly manner these facilities are managed. Clean and tidy with great care being taken on safety aspect. It is when I see these types of facilities that I wish our councils are able to up-grade some of our facilities in order to provide services which all of us as residents can truly feel proud of.

Yes, it will take time but as our citizens staying in the bigger cities and towns are now more discerning, we need to cater for their needs as well. These urban dwellers are often well travelled or well read, so their wants and needs should be addressed as well.

I supposed we need to provide a variety of facilities to cater for different needs of our populations, whether urban or rural. To be fair, big cities such as Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya, such types of leisure facilities are already there but we need to do more.

Cities like Kuching, Miri and Sibu in Sarawak need to catch up to keep their populations reasonably happy with the administrations/authorities.

Should we leave it just like that? Que sera sera?

With a hung parliament, it looks like both the two major parties are now trying to win over support from the Independents! It is such an irony that the major contestants are now reduced to having to win over the minnows in order to form a government to rule the country over the next four years.

I just wonder how the new government can be stable enough to have a strong leadership for Australia on the world agenda  on such issues as climate change  and APEC going into the future! The papers are playing up the internal squabbles within the Labour Party when Julia Gillard forced out former PM and Labour Party leader (just two months or so ago) then dissolving Parliament to seek a fresh mandate on 19th July. Such was the risk that Julia Gillard as the then Prime Minister had to face to strenghten her leadership. Perhaps she gambled and lost in this high stakes political game.

There is no better example of how a democratic system in the works to show that the voters are the determinants or ‘king-makers’ as to who has the legitimacy to rule the country.

To my mind all political parties, especially SUPP Sarawak, should take a leaf from this political turn-around or experiences by the Labour Party of Australia.

I must say there was very little fan-fare with none of the hugh number of posters as we used to have in Malaysia. Even at the polling stations, there were very little posters around to be seen. I saw amen at the entrance with a few convassers standing around to lobby for votes.

So different atmosphere here in Sydney! The city is quite with none of the cars displaying the symbols of the contesting parties plying to ferry voters, etc. Polling will close at 6pm and the pundits and tipsters are predicting a close contest leading to a ‘hung’ parliament after tonight’s counting of votes and final results with Labour having a slight edge.

It is good to know that there is all round support for efforts to be energy efficient as well as using less whenever possible.

The water restructuring issue is complex as it involves many parties, namely: the federal and state governments as well as the concessionaires. The concessionaires have bond interest payments to think of as they have invested huge amounts of money and they are answerable to the bond holders.

As such, I would like to urge the Selangor government to seriously consider in approving the development order for the building of the water treatment plant. Only then the Ministry can facilitate the matter in a proper manner with industry players, suppliers and other stakeholders to ensure the project is implemented according to the schedule.

Please follow the link below as published in the Star newspaper.

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/8/13/business/6849682&sec=business

Maybe a critical look should be taken to evaluate the sustainable limits of the infrastructures on these islands; if this has not been done. We should never allow the sudden influx of tourists to overwhelm the sustainability level, otherwise, the law of diminishing returns will apply. It will be a pity if it should come to that as these islands are so scenic, green and enchanting.

Please follow the news @ BERNAMA

http://bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsgeneral.php?id=519680

By a vote of 122 in favour [including Malaysia] to none against, with 41 abstentions, on 28th July 2010, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling on UN Member States and international organizations to offer financial resources, build capacity, transfer technology and other resources, particularly to developing countries, in scaling up efforts to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for everyone.

Please click on the link below to follow the rest of the entry.

http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2010/ga10967.doc.htm

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35456&Cr=SANITATION&Cr1=

 陳華貴（右2）聆聽官員匯報哥巴抽水站工程進展(圖：星洲日報)

Project is for a water intake facility besides the Kuantan River and is delayed for almost two years. Main cause for the delay is the collapse of a coffer dam which as I was briefed had design faults. Though the coffer dam is not the main component of the project, still, without a functional coffer dam on site, the water intake cannot be done.

Here is the problem which keeps cropping up with other projects as well even though we have consultants to the engineering designs and so forth. Is it the attitude of our contractors or our consultants who missed out on the finer details?

My comment after seeing the site myself is that there should have been more care and attention for details to ensure the successful construction of the coffer dam which is so vital to the project implementation. Only by paying attention to details and its faithful implementation will result in success for all the stakeholders.

There must be a lesson learnt!

photo courtesy of Berita Harian

I feel honoured as this appreciation is in recognition of my contributions during my tenure as the Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities (2004-2009). In fact, I have benefited for having  the full cooperation of all stakeholders in the palm oil fraternity to steer the industry to greater heights. Many transformation programmes have resulted in marked improvements in sustainability of the palm oil industry to meet the intense challenges and demands of the global oil and fats market.

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