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news without borders
Woman loses land
worth RM40m in scam
A WOMAN lost 283ha of rubber smallholding
land worth RM40 million to a syndicate which
changed the ownership of the land without her
knowledge.
The land scam was uncovered in October
last year when the woman, a 60-year-old realtor,
decided to sell the property located in Selangor.
She discovered to her shock that the land,
which her family had owned for more than 70
years, was under the names of other people.
A check with the Selangor Land and Mines
Department by her lawyers showed that a new
title deed bearing the names of five unknown
individuals had been issued and the new owners
had obtained a bank loan with the title deed.
The co-chairman of Selangor’s Special Task
Force on Land Issues, Datuk Dr Tan Kee Kwong,
in confirming the scam, told Sin Chew Daily that
according to state guidelines, a change in owner-
ship of smallholding land had to go through the
state smallholdings management committee, a
process bypassed by the fraudsters.
He said the owner of the land had lodged a
police report.
‘Many SMIs may have to close shop’
Press Digest
by Kong See Hoh
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
SOME 1.35 million small and
medium industries (SMIs) in the
country will face an operational
crisis due to dwindling revenues if
the government does not increase
domestic consumption in the next
six months.
Many of these may even have
to close shop, according to a report
in China Press yesterday.
SMI Association of Malaysia
national secretary Lee Teck Meng
said there are 1.5 million com-
panies and businesses registered
under the Registrar of Companies
or Companies Commission of
Malaysia, 90% of which come
under the micro- and small-indus-
try categories.
He said that of the 11 million
workers in Malaysia, 56% are
employed in SMIs, which will
face a survival test in the next six
months.
“The market has become very
quiet after the Chinese New Year,
and consumers’ spending power
has also dropped greatly, hitting
the various industries head-on,”
Lee said.
“Although the government has
not released the latest consumer
indices, many industry players
have disclosed that sales were
down after the Chinese New Year,
notably for electronics and electri-
cal appliances which have seen a
50% drop, and fashion wear which
theSun
dropped 25%. Even the sale of
food products has gone down
10%.”
He told the daily that the
drop in demand had directly
impacted on upstream manu-
facturers, saying 90% of some
45,000 manufacturers were in
crisis mode.
Lee said 1-2% of the as-
sociation’s 3,000 members
had indicated their intention
to switch to other businesses,
a euphemism for business
closures.
“Many believe it is a big
shame to have to close shop, as
such no member would want to
tell us that they would be clos-
ing down their factories. The
association has no way of
getting a true picture of the
briefs
Japan’s finance
minister denies
drinking before G7
TOKYO: Japanese Finance
Minister Shoichi Nakagawa
denied yesterday he drank
alcohol ahead of a Group of
Seven gathering in Rome and
said cold medicine had affected
his performance at a news
conference after the weekend
meeting.
“To tell you the truth, my
cold medicine was having a big
effect,” Nakagawa told report-
ers in Tokyo after returning from
the Italian capital.
“I wouldn’t drink before a
G7 meeting,” he said, sniffling
repeatedly.
At the news conference
with Bank of Japan Governor
Masaaki Shirakawa after the
G7 meeting in Rome, Naka-
gawa yawned and his speech
sounded slurred.
At one point, Nakagawa, his
head down and eyes closed,
mistook a question directed to
the central bank governor as
one for him.
Japanese television broad-
casters and several national
newspapers issued stories
calling attention to his appear-
ance at the news conference.
– Reuters
14 die in Chile
helicopter crash
SANTIAGO: Fourteen people
were killed on Sunday when
their helicopter crashed in
southern Chile, officials said.
Reports indicated that the
victims were firefighters from
Celco, a local paper-making
firm.
“Fourteen people lost their
lives from a brigade of Celco,”
Maria Carmen Perez, an army
officer from the Maule region
south of the capital Santiago,
told local radio.
The firm has a plant close
to the site of the crash.
Since the beginning of
January – the hottest month
of Chile’s summer – the south
of the country has been hit
by a wave of forest fires that
has destroyed 15,000ha of
forest and shrub land.
Hundreds of firefighters
have been dispatched to the
region to fight at least ten
| TUESDAY FEBRUARY 17 2009
crisis.”
He said that due to a lack
of good financial planning, a
majority of the SMIs do not
have a reserve fund to last them
beyond six months.
Only those with a reserve
fund than will last more than
two years can weather the
global economic storm, Lee
added.
He disclosed that of the com-
panies registered in Malaysia,
60% are micro industries with
an annual revenue of less than
RM500,000, 30% small indus-
tries with an revenue of between
RM500,000 and RM10 million,
and 10% medium industries
generating an annual revenue
of between RM10 million and
RM25 million.
fires that continue to burn.
– AFP
Mexican gang kills
12 in revenge act
MEXICO CITY: A criminal com-
mando killed 12 people in the
south-western Mexican Tabasco
province in an act of revenge
against a police officer and his
family for the arrest of a gang
of murder suspects, officials
confirmed on Sunday.
The extraordinary gruesome
attack on Saturday evening
took the lives of six children in
Monte Largo, 50km south of the
Tabasco capital Villahermosa.
Officials believed the motive
was revenge against the police
officer who helped arrest four
suspected killers last Tuesday
who were members of a crimi-
nal gang.
The dead included the police
officer, his family and several
neighbours. Three people were
also injured. – dpa
UN: Tigers killing
civilians fleeing Sri
Lanka war zone
COLOMBO: Tamil Tiger gue-
rillas have prevented tens
of thousands of civilians
from leaving Sri Lanka’s war
zone and those trying to
escape have been “shot and
sometimes killed”, the United
Nations said yesterday.
The rebels are holding
non-combatants in the small
patch of jungle in the north
of the island where they have
been cornered by government
forces, it added.
“A growing number of peo-
ple trying to leave have been
shot and sometimes killed,”
the UN office here said in a
statement, adding the Tigers
were recruiting child soldiers
as young as 14 years old.
It urged both the Tigers
and government forces to
find a humane solution so
that civilians, including chil-
dren, could be spared more
loss of life due to disease and
the fighting.
The UN said 15 of its local
staff and 75 of their depend-
ants were also not allowed
to leave the conflict area by
the Tamil Tigers, who had
forcibly recruited one of the
UN staffers.
“We are especially con-
cerned that one staff member
was reported forcibly recruit-
ed into the LTTE yesterday
(Sunday),” it said. – AFP