Tag: The Guardian

Fitnah Yang di-Pertuan Agong: Guardian Harus Mohon Ampun

“The Guardian view on a royal coup: a king overturns a historic election” (Pandangan Guardian mengenai rampasan kuasa diraja: seorang raja membatalkan (keputusan) pilihanraya bersejarah) – itulah tajuk laporan editorial akhbar British, The Guardian yang jelas memfitnah dan menghina DYMM Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Al-Musta’in Billah.

Ibarat pepatah, orang lain makan nangka, orang lain kena getahnya.

Menuduh berlakunya rampasan kuasa diraja di Malaysia dan memfitnah Raja kita membatalkan keputusan pilihanraya bersejarah adalah perbuatan keji yang melampau.

Sungguh memalukan apabila pihak editorial sebuah akhbar antarabangsa gagal membuat kerja rumah atau “homework” sebelum menulis sebuah laporan; lebih-lebih lagi apabila ianya melibatkan maruah seorang Raja dan negara yang berdaulat.

Jelas bahawa tumbangnya kerajaan Pakatan Harapan yang mencetuskan krisis politik sehingga seminggu adalah berpunca daripada perebutan kuasa beberapa pemimpin-pemimpin politik, khasnya jawatan Perdana Menteri.

Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong telah menjalankan tanggungjawab eksekutif banginda dengan tertib dan bijaksana untuk menamatkan konflik ini demi kesejahteraan negara.

Sila baca: Krisis Politik 2020: Ke Manakah Kita?

Tidak seperti Perlembagaan United Kingdom yang tidak bertulis, Perlembagaan Persekutuan Malaysia ialah Perlembagaan bertulis; maka sudah tentu perkara ini memudahkan pihak editorial The Guardian untuk membuat rujukan, jika mereka jujur dan bersikap professional.

Perkara 32(1) Perlembagaan Persekutuan menetapkan bahawa Yang di-Pertuan Agong merupakan Ketua Utama Negara, yang membawa maksud bahawa baginda mempunyai kuasa eksekutif tertinggi seperti yang diperuntukkan oleh Perkara 39 Perlembagaan.

Sila baca: Kuasa Eksekutif Agong Yang Kurang Diketahui

Persoalannya:

  • Apakah pihak editorial The Guardian sengaja membuat fitnah liar ini dengan niat jahat?
  • Atau apakah mereka hanya bekerja sambil lewa tanpa membuat kajian sebelum menulis sesuatu yang mereka sendiri tidak fahami?

Untuk rekod, beberapa hari yang lalu, Ketua Polis Negara Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador memberi amaran supaya tidak ada mana-mana pihak cuba membawa masuk ‘unsur luar’ untuk mencampuri situasi politik negara ketika ini.

Abdul Hamid mengesahkan terdapat usaha untuk membawa elemen dari luar bagi membantu ‘pihak tertentu’ menghadapi kemelut politik negara pada masa ini. 
“Itu namanya pengkhianatan terhadap negara…jangan libatkan orang luar…kita dalam perbalahan adik-beradik antara parti.

BERNAMA (Jangan bawa unsur luar dalam situasi politik negara – KPN)

Pihak The Guardian mesti memohon ampun kepada Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong serta, meminta maaf kepada seluruh rakyat Malaysia atas tindakan mereka yang biadap.

Photos : Category 5 Hurricane Dorian Pounds Bahamas

(Image credit to Insider)

ABC New reported that the category 5 Hurricane Dorian, which came ashore on Elbow Cay of the Abaco Islands, is tied for the strongest Atlantic hurricane landfall on record, along with a hurricane on Labor Day in 1935 that struck the Florida Keys and moved up along the Gulf Coast of Florida.

The eye of the storm made a second landfall at 2 p.m. on the island near Marsh Harbour, and a third landfall an hour before midnight on the eastern end of Grand Bahama Island.

Devastating conditions continued on the Abaco Islands overnight, with western portions of Grand Bahama, including the main city of Freeport, seeing the situation head south through the early morning.

Below is a report by The Guardian – Category 5 Hurricane Dorian pounds Bahamas – as it happened:

  • Hurricane Dorian has pounded the northernmost islands of the Bahamas with winds reaching speeds of more than 220mph (355kmh).
  • The first death was reported from the hurricane by Eyewitness News in the Bahamas, which spoke with a woman who said she had learned her eight-year-old grandson had died, likely drowned, and her granddaughter was missing. Both children were in the Abaco Islands.
  • Dorian is the biggest storm to hit the island chain in modern times and has been described as “catastrophic” and posing a “life-threatening” risk.
  • Meteorologists are finding it difficult to predict the path of the hurricane because of its wide “cone of uncertainty”. Though the Bahamas will probably suffer the most devastation, the big question in terms of scale of potential human suffering is where and when Dorian will hit along the east coast of the US, where population density is so much greater.
  • Georgia and South Carolina issued evacuation orders for their coastal communities on Sunday night as the National Hurricane Center warned of storm surges that could reach 18ft to 23ft (5.5m-7m) above normal levels.
  • On Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas, footage emerged of floodwaters reaching halfway up the sides of family homes with parts of the roofs torn off. The island chain’s homes are built to withstand winds of at least 150mph (241km/h).
  • Bahamian prime minister Hubert Minnis said in a televised address: “This is probably the most sad and worst day of my life to address the Bahamian people. I just want to say as a physician I’ve been trained to withstand many things, but never anything like this.

Please click here the photos for larger images:

Harvey: Before And After Photos Of Catastrophic Houston Flood

Hurricane Harvey which made landfall in Texas as a Category 4 storm on August 25, caused “epic and catastrophic” flooding especially in Houston and some other parts of Texas.

Floodwaters are expected to rise further in the inundated Houston as the flood situation in Texas is expected to worsen in the coming days.

Below are some before and after photos of the flood caused by Hurricane Harvey taken from Yahoo! News and The Guardian.

Please click the photos for larger images:

Photos: Grenfell Tower on Fire

[The Guardian}- An unknown number of people have been killed and dozens injured after a huge fire engulfed a tower block in west London in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Hundreds of firefighters battled to rescue residents from their flats after the fire broke out at Grenfell Tower on Latimer Road, near Notting Hill, shortly before 1am.

The blaze rapidly engulfed the full height of the 24-storey block, and was still burning strongly more than six hours later, with a thick pall of dark smoke visible across the capital.

Residents could be seen waving and screaming from their windows, as firefighters wearing breathing apparatus fought to rescue them from their flats.

Shortly before 8am, the London fire commissioner, Dany Cotton, confirmed there had been “a number of fatalities” as a result of the “unprecedented” fire.

“In my 29 years of being a firefighter I have never ever seen anything of this scale,” she said. “This is a major fire that has affected all floors of this 24 storey building, from the second floor upwards.”

The number of deaths could not yet be confirmed “due to the size and complexity of this fire,” Cotton said, adding that the cause of the blaze was also unknown at this stage.

My View On Waco’s Twin Peaks Shooting

A shootout between rival biker gangs on a Sunday afternoon at a Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, Texas, had killed 9 people and injured 18 others.

Sadly, shootings and violent incidents seems to becoming a norm in once a civilised country. 
The Guardian reported that sergeant Patrick Swanton, a spokesperson for Waco police department, said in a press conference on Monday after the incident that:

Police in Waco have charged 170 people with “organised crime in reference to … capital murder” in what could potentially represent the largest mass arrest on a capital charge in American history. – The Guardian.

The Guardian also reported that sergeant Patrick Swanton as saying:

“What happened here today could have been avoided,” he said. “They [the restaurant management] failed and this is what happened.”- The Guardian.

So, the incident could have been avoided?

He added: “We have been made aware over two months that rival gangs are meeting here and that the potential for violence is increasing.” – The Guardian.

“Police were already present at the scene because authorities were aware of the likelihood of trouble between the gangs, Swanton said,” – The Guardian.

The police had suspected some violent incident to happen during the meeting between the gangs; so they were there at the scene; but they do not have the rights to interfere before the incident happen because they have no rights to do so!

He said that police had attempted to get the local management to assist but they “would not cooperate”. – The Guardian.

The First Amendment in the American constitution says:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

As what I had asked before, is too much freedom good for us?

This shooting could have been avoided if:

  1. The police had the rights to take actions to prevent  the violent incident from happening.

  2. The government of United States does not give the total freedom of owning and carrying guns to their citizens.

In this case, the police had done their job and they were actually there before the shooting started but sadly, their hands were tied.

The police can’t do anything because not like Singapore, the United States does not have laws like the Internal Security Act (ISA) of Singapore (Cap. 143, 1985 Rev. Ed.), where police can take actions to prevent such crime if they have information that it could happen; furthermore carrying guns is legal in the United States.

Innocent people and children could had been killed and the police could not do anything to stop it from happening in the first place.

It is sad that such a violent incident that could had been prevented can’t be stopped.

After all the mass shootings in the United States, is it right for the United States to tell Malaysia to repeal the Sedition Act after the Western powers and the United Nations had forced Malaysia to abolish the ISA?

Without the laws, mass shooting and mass killing like the Sandy Hook shooting incident could be a norm in Malaysia just like in the United States.

I am surprised that the United States had not learnt that too much freedom and the rights to carry guns are part of the reasons that had caused the many incidents of mass shootings and mass killings and expect other country to abolish laws that could prevent such incidents.

Perhaps the government of Singapore can brief the United Nations on why they still keep the ISA.

Is total freedom to do anything they want as demanded by the human rights groups is more important than preserving a peaceful community and the safety  of minors and old people who may not be able to protect themselves? 

Malaysia Airlines Jet Shot Down Over Ukraine – Huffington Post

Boeing told CNN that it will aid in any investigation that follows the Malaysia Airlines plane crash.

Reuters reported:

“EMERGENCIES MINISTRY OFFICIAL ON SITE SAYS BODY PARTS SCATTERED AROUND UP TO 15 KM FROM CRASH SITE, AT LEAST 100 BODIES SEEN”

(Please click here for more news)

The Malaysian Prime Minister tweeted that:

 · 27m

I am shocked by reports that an MH plane crashed. We are launching an immediate investigation.

Malaysia Airlines Plane Crashes In East Ukraine?

A passenger jet has reportedly crashed in eastern Ukraine in an area where separatist rebels have been engaging Ukrainian army forces in recent weeks.

The Malaysia Airlines plane, travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, apparently had 295 people on board and crashed near the town of Snezhnoe, according to a report from Interfax news agency which could not immediately be confirmed.

A source in the Russian aviation industry told Reuters that the plane did not enter Russian airspace when expected and had indeed crashed in eastern Ukraine.

In recent days the Ukrainian air force has lost planes in the area after they have been shot down by rebels. Earlier on Thursday, Ukraine accused Russia of downing one of its fighter jets inside Ukrainian territory. -The Guardian

Malaysia Airlines wrote on their Twitter account that they had lost contact with the flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.