Ganesh Sahathevan

Much has been made of Ian Tang, the person who at the very least manages Beijing AustChina. As to who precisely owns the company and who finances this big donor to political parties in Australia (often the Australian Labor Party), and financier of up and coming politicians , including one Lu Kewen , now prime minister of Australia , has been difficult to determine. Often in such cases where financial linkages are difficult to determine, indirect means of establishing linkages are necessary. One method is to trace the ownership and registration of websites. An investigation of the Beijing AustChina website reveals its website bact.com.cn to be administered by tom.xu@ltt.com.cn. Ltt.com.cn is the website of the LTT Textiles Co., Ltd. The company's address: 310 North Zhongshan Road , Hangzhou , China ,310003;matches that of the Zhejiang Metals and Minerals Exp&Imp Corp (http://www.zjmtd.com.cn/contact.htm) LTT Textiles phone number: 86 - 571 - 85775641 matches one that has been pr...

The following are matters of public record. Readers can draw their own conclusions. a)MALAYSIAN ruling party MPs are willing to defect to the opposition in sufficient numbers to trigger a change of government, according to de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim..."The sentiments in Sabah and Sarawak are strong, with a number of people approaching us," Mr Anwar said, referring to the states on the island of Borneo.(http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/anwar-tips-defections/2008/03/19/1205602481927.html) b)Anwar Ibrahim and associates have clearly linked themselves to formerly Melbourne based Commercial IBT Bank of Labuan, a USD 8 Billion cash-box.See story and a collection of some of documents at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/stories/2006/1754286.htm c) Anwar Ibrahim is not averse to money politics-See for example page 6 onwards of article at http://www.jstor.org/view/00044687/di014538/00p0434z/0 Also comments by former Anwar man Chandra Muzaffar at http://www.j...

Premesh Chandran: Definitely. I think by April his limitations of standing for elections will be over and he can make his way into parliament through a by-election, or he can also be appointed a senator and join the upper house. Each of the five state governments in the opposition can actually appoint senators to the upper house and he can make it into parliament and therefore into prime ministership through various means. Also some truth finally on the actual outcome of the elections in Malaysia: So you see a not so much a shift between UMNO Malay leadership to a non-Malay leadership, but a new Malay leadership arising, one which is more open minded, one which is more globalised, one which is prepared to face the challenge of meritocracy. (http://australianetwork.com/cgi-bin/common/printfriendly.pl?http://www.abc.net.au/australianetwork/focus/s2191408.htm) NOTE:I presume that readers are aware that the Malaysian Parliament is based on the Westminster System and hence the prime minist...

The recently concluded elections in Malaysia for both state and federal parliamentary seats have provided some insight into how the Westminster system is practised in a Muslim state. The state of Perak saw a Chinese majority party, the Democratic Action Party (DAP) win 18 of the 59 seats contested. The Muslim party PAS won 6, and the PKR, effectively led by the leading apologist for Islam and its compatibility with western democratic principles, Anwar Ibrahim, won 7. All three parties are members of a loose coalition led by Anwar Ibrahim that campaigned against the ruling Barisan Nasional.Hence as a coalition, they held a majority 31 seats, the majority of which were won by the DAP. The DAP's majority should have meant that the state's chief minister would come from that party, but this was not to be for the Constitution of that state requires that the chief minsiter be a Malay Muslim. Hence,the position of chief minsiter has gone to PAS's Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin, despite...

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his Papua New Guinea counterpart Michael Somare have signed a pact to protect forests and reduce carbon emissions. The agreement was signed at talks involving the two leaders in Port Moresby on Thursday. Mr Rudd flew in to the PNG capital on Thursday morning for his first visit to the nation as prime minister. Following the talks, Mr Rudd and Mr Somare said the PNG-Australia forest carbon partnership would address greenhouse emissions and deforestation. Under the pact, a carbon trading scheme will be developed that can be linked to international markets. The agreement follows the United Nations climate change conference in Bali late last year, at which the two leaders met for the first time. Mr Rudd announced the partnership as part of a Port Moresby "declaration", which aims to strengthen relations between the two nations. "I believe the time has come for us to turn over a new page and write a new chapter in Australia-PNG relations," M...