6 theSun | WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 31 2008

news without borders

Veterinary Dept tracking

Suhakam: Apply the China
faces new
melamine
scandal
source of beta agonist
THE Veterinary Services Department has

law consistently Press Digest

KUALA LUMPUR:
Police should be
consistent and neutral in
applying the law, Human
Rights Commission of
Malaysia (Suhakam)
commissioner Datuk N.
Siva Subramaniam said
yesterday.
“The law does not
differ from state to state,”
he said after receiving a
second memorandum from
Jaringan Rakyat Tertindas
(Oppressed People’s
Network) or Jerit.
He told a press
conference at the
Suhakam office here the
memorandum would
be submitted to the
commission members
next month.
Siva Subramaniam said
Suhakam had sent a letter
dated Dec 17 to Inspector-
General of Police Tan
Sri Musa Hassan after it
received a memorandum
from Jerit on Dec 10 and
was awaiting a reply. The
commission would also
hear the police’s view on
the matter, he said.
In yesterday’s
memorandum, presented
to the commission by
Jerit coordinator M.
Sarasvathy, Jerit described
the “misuse of power”
by police throughout its
cycling campaign “Cycling
for change”, which began
from Alor Star on Dec
3 and Skudai, Johor on
Dec 6, and ended at the
Parliament building on
Dec 18.
Jerit is demanding the
abolition of the Internal
Security Act, legislation to
provide a minimum wage
for workers, comfortable
homes for the poor, an
end to the privatisation of
water, electricity, hospitals
and public facilities, price
controls on basic goods,
and the restoration of local
government elections.
It has urged Suhakam
to hold
a public inquiry into the
police handling of the
campaign with regard to
human rights, children’s
rights, the right to provide
information and the right
to free movement.
In its memorandum,
Jerit claimed that the
police used varying
interpretations of the law
in different states. It listed
in chronological order,
events involving the police
throughout the campaign.
Present at the press
conference were Jerit
spokesman S. Arutchelvan
and coordinator
R. Moharani.
said the beta agonist found to have been
pg 14 used on 10 pig farms is from an undisclosed
source and can be harmful to humans.
The errant farms have since been quar-
antined for one month.
The department is taking a serious
view of the use of the growth enhancer
– a banned substance – and is tracking the
supply chain to identify the source, Nanyang
Siang Pau reported yesterday.
The deputy director-general of the de-
partment, Dr Ibrahim Che Embong, said a
preliminary probe showed errant farmers
were using a cheap substance smuggled
in from a country in the region. He stopped
short of naming the country.
Ibrahim said the department would
determine the extent of the substance’s
effect on the human body. The department
believes the substance is obtained from the
Sarasvathy black market.
presents the “They know we have strict controls on
memorandum animal feed, they won’t buy the beta agonist
to Siva
Subramaniam.
Hua Zong sets up committee
to mediate New Era dispute
HUA ZONG (Federation of Chinese Asso-
ciations in Malaysia) will mediate the New
Era College leadership dispute, which has
dragged on for six months, the Chinese
press reported yesterday.
It has set up an 11-member committee to
try to break the ice between the two feuding
parties – one led by Dong Zong president
Dr Yap Sin Tian and the other by outgoing
college dean Dr Kua Kia Soong – and bring
them to the negotiation table.
Two third-party attempts to resolve the
dispute have failed. The question on all minds
will now be whether the committee, headed
by Hua Zong president Tan Sri Lim Gait Tong,
can end the dispute that has caused the big-
gest split yet among advocates of Chinese
by Kong See Hoh
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
along with the feed. They get it separately
from the black market,” Ibrahim said.
He admitted it was not easy to stamp out
the illegal use of beta agonist, but said stern
action would be taken against those caught,
including blacklisting them. “If the culprits ex-
port pork, we will ban their export,” he said.
He appealed to people with information
on errant farmers to come forward.
Department director-general Datuk
Dr Abdul Aziz Jamaluddin said although
10 farms in Malacca, Selangor, Perak and
Penang were found using beta agonist, pork
sold in the market is safe for consumption.
China Press said that there has been a
20% drop in demand for pork in the Klang
Valley following reports that a pig farm in
Selangor was among the 10 quarantined.
education in the country.
Lim disclosed the establishment of
the committee in a press statement after
chairing its first meeting at the KPJ Selangor
Specialist Hospital where he is receiving
treatment for a heart ailment.
Other members of the team include
Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assem-
bly Hall president Datuk Bong Hon Liong and
deputy president Tan Yew Sing, Dong Jiao
Zong adviser Datuk Sim Mow Yu, former
Penang exco member Dr Toh Kin Woon and
former science, technology and environment
minister Tan Sri Law Hieng Ding.
Bong told reporters after the meeting
(Lim’s room was off-limits to the media) that
Lim was doing well.

Nigerian may have been visited the unit at 4pm.

forced to become drug mule
KUALA LUMPUR: Police have not ruled out the
possibility that a Nigerian man who fell to his
death from the 12th floor of a condominium in
Puchong Perdana on Monday night had been
forced to become a drug mule.
Selangor CID chief SAC II Hasnan Hassan said
the man and four others, including two Singa-
porean women, were held captive when they
“According to the Singaporean women, they
were forced to become drug mules by four Nige-
rian men who abducted them,” he said.
The man, a college student in his 30s, was
found naked on the ground floor of the condo-
minium at about 8.30pm.
The student was earlier forced to strip and
tied up with four others, including the two
women. After untying himself, he tried to escape
but fell to his death. – Bernama
Two rob goldsmith’s shop
owner of RM1.4m
GEORGE TOWN: A goldsmith’s shop in the
Jelutong industrial area was robbed of an
estimated RM1.4 million in gold bullion, jew-
ellery and cash on Monday night.
The robbery took place at about 11pm
after the shop owner was stopped by two
men, one armed with a knife, near her car,
parked close to a night market on Jalan Van
Praagh, about 4km from the shop. The men,
believed to be in their 20s, drove the owner
to the shop and forced her to open a vault.
Penang police chief Datuk Ayub Yaa-
kob said the robbers took eight gold bars
weighing 1kg each, worth RM769,000 in
total, RM497,000 in jewellery, US$20,300
(RM73,080) in cash, a laptop and two mobile
phones. They fled in the victim’s car.
A man and a woman in their late 20s have
been remanded to help in investigations.