The festivities that began in October last year, starting with Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Deepavali, Christmas and recently Chinese New Year finally came to an end moments ago. The festivities will make a comeback in October, starting again with Hari Raya Aidilfitri expected on 1 October 2008. Deepavali is on 27 October and Christmas is as usual on 25 December.
Chinese New Year will fall again on Monday, 26 January 2009. Till then, have a good year ahead!
Pauline Puah
The Sun
PETALING JAYA (Feb 19, 2008): DAP will be contesting seven parliamentary and 18 state seats in Perak in the March 8 general election.
DAP veteran leader Lim Kit Siang told theSun the seven parliamentary seats are Ipoh Timur, Ipoh Barat, Batu Gajah, Taiping, Beruas, Kampar and Teluk Intan.
DAP will also contest all the nine state seats in the Kinta Valley - Canning, Tebing Tinggi, Pasir Pinji, Bercham, Kepayang, Buntong, Jelapang, Menglembu and Tronoh.
Other state seats that DAP would be contesting are Pokok Assam, Aulong, Jalong, Pantai Remis, Malim Nawar, Keranji, Setiawan, Pasir Bedamar and Sungkai.
Earlier, seat negotiations between DAP and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) were in a stalemate as PKR was also keen to contest some state seats in the Kinta Valley.
It led to a war of words between leaders of both parties, to the point that both parties had to prepare for three-cornered fights if the negotiations failed.
Kit Siang said he and PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had in a joint press conference today announced both parties’ commitment to avoid three-cornered fights. DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and PKR vice-president Dr Lee Boon Chye were also present in the press conference.
In 2004, Lee who had been active in Ipoh Timur had to give way to Kit Siang and contested in Gopeng where he was defeated.
Lee, when contacted, said the party will be announcing the seats it is contesting once its negotiations with PAS are finalised.
“We will announce the list in a day or two,” said Lee who is expected to go for Gopeng again.
On whether there would be a three-corner fight in Jalong state seat since Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) which would contest under PKR’s ticket also expressed its interest to contest the seat, Lee said: “We will sort that out later.”
PSM had announced that it would rather go for a three-cornered fight if DAP refused to let go of the Jalong state and Sungai Siput parliamentary seats.
In the 2004 general election, PSM contested on a PKR ticket as it is unregistered, and DAP fought in a three-cornered fight for the Sungai Siput seat held by MIC president Datuk Seri S.Samy Vellu.
Samy Vellu won with a majority of 10,349 votes while PRM’s Dr D.Jeyakumar polled 8,680 vote and DAP’s P.P.Samugam garnered 2,890.
Bernama
HONG KONG, Feb 19 (Bernama) — Lydia Shum Din-Ha, known as Fei- fei, or Fatty, and one of Hong Kong’s most popular comedian actresses, died of liver tumor and other complications on Tuesday morning in a hospital in Hong Kong, China’s XINHUA news agency reported Tuesday.
She was 60 years old.
Shum was born in July, 1947 into a well-off large family in Shanghai and ranked the fifth among the family’s eight children.
She made her film debut in 1960, joined the Hong Kong-based Shaw Brothers, a famous film company, as a child actress and rose to stardom with the free-to-air television broadcaster TVB’s variety show Enjoy Yourself Tonight, which was hugely popular in Hong Kong for over 20 years.
With her signature smile, dark-rimmed glasses and comic hairstyle, Shum established herself as a comic and dramatic actress. Her successful career spanning almost half a century also included the role as a TV hostess.
Shum married Hong Kong actor and singer Adam Cheng Siu-chow in 1985 after they lived together four years.
The two split up in 1987, only eight months after their daughter and only child Joyce was born.
Shum, dogged by numerous health problems, including chronic ailments such as cholangitis, diabetes and hypertension, was lately admitted to hospitals repeatedly.
She was diagnosed with liver tumor and cancer around the gallbladder in 2006 and was discharged from hospital in July 2007 after an operation to remove a third of her liver.
But she collapsed at home and was rushed to hospital in October.
Taiping, the 2nd largest town in Perak earned its name from the meaning great peace (太平). However, the Taiping parliamentary constituency is not that peaceful after all. The following news item of Malaysiakini says it all.
I’m staying in Taiping, says Kayveas
Andrew Ong
MalaysiakiniPeople’s Progressive Party (PPP) president M Kayveas today publicly announced that he would be the Barisan Nasional candidate for the Taiping parliamentary seat, after seeking confirmation from BN chairperson Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yesterday.
The announcement was made during Kayveas’ public address during his Chinese New Year open house in Taiping which was received with an enthusiastic response from the crowd.
At a press conference later, Kayveas expressed the hope that his announcement would put to rest speculations on whether PPP would be allowed to contest in Taiping, which was ‘loaned’ to the party by fellow BN component Gerakan during the 2004 general election.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’ve already obtained a confirmation from the prime minister yesterday. No more speculations,” he said.
Gerakan has never lost the Taiping seat since 1969 but reluctantly allowed PPP to contest there in 2004 in what was then dubbed a ‘one-off’ seat arrangement with Umno.
Then, Umno made way for Gerakan’s women’s wing chief Tan Lian Hoe to contest in the Malay-majority Bukit Gantang seat, which neighbours the Taiping seat.
Since 2004, Gerakan and PPP have been trading barbs over the Taiping seat. Following this, Tan was made the BN Taiping chairperson, which was seen as a prelude to Gerakan’s return to the Taiping seat. Umno Bukit Gantang on the other hand had been previously promised the return of the Bukit Gantang seat by BN Perak chairperson Mohd Tajol Rosli.
