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Showing posts with label HIT PHOTO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HIT PHOTO. Show all posts
The Russian Public Has a Totally Different Understanding of What Happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 17
Written By Unknown on Saturday, 9 August 2014 | 02:21
Did you know Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was full of corpses when it took off from Amsterdam? Did you know that, for some darkly inexplicable reason, on July 17, MH17 moved off the standard flight path that it had taken every time before, and moved north, toward rebel-held areas outside Donetsk? Or that the dispatchers summoned the plane lower just before the crash? Or that the plane had been recently reinsured? Or that the Ukrainian army has air defense systems in the area? Or that it was the result of the Ukrainian military mistaking MH17 for Putin’s presidential plane, which looks strangely similar?
Did you know that the crash of MH17 was all part of an American conspiracy to provoke a big war with Russia?
Well, it’s all true—at least if you live in Russia, because this is the Malaysia Airlines crash story that you’d be seeing.
READ: I Slept Next to the Wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17As the crisis surrounding the plane crash deepens and as calls for Vladimir Putin to act grow louder, it’s worth noting that they’re not really getting through to Putin’s subjects. The picture of the catastrophe that the Russian people are seeing on their television screens is very different from that on screens in much of the rest of the world, and the discrepancy does not bode well for a sane resolution to this stand-off.
Western media has been vacillating for days between calling Putin a murderer and peppering their coverage with allegedlys, telling the heart-rending tales of the victims, scrounging for anonymous leaks to link the Russians to the downed jet, and punditizing about exit ramps.
But in Russia, television—most of it owned or controlled by the Kremlin—is trying to muddy the water with various experts who insist that there is no way that an SA-11 missile system could possibly have downed a plane flying that high. And, mind you, this is not part of a larger debate of could they, or couldn’t they; this is all of Russian television and state-friendly papers pushing one line: The pro-Russian separatists we’ve been supporting all these months couldn’t have done this. Watching some of these Russian newscasts, one comes away with the impression of a desperate defense attorney scrounging for experts and angles, or a bad kid caught red-handed by the principal, trying to twist his way out of a situation in which he has no chance.
READ: Malaysia Air Corpses Used as Sickening PR Stunt for Rebels' Fake RepublicAnd that’s when they’re not simply peddling conspiracy theories, which have become a kind of symbiotic feedback loop between state TV and the most inventive corners of the Internet. The best of the bunch is, of course, an elaborate one: MH17 is actually MH370, that Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared into the Indian Ocean. According to this theory, the plane didn’t disappear at all, “it was taken to an American military base, Diego-Garcia.”
But though it may look unconvincing to us in the West, that is because we have seen and read other things that contradict it. The Russian media space has become so uniform and independent voices so cowed and marginalized that there is no counterweight and, when there’s no counterweight, if you repeat a thing often enough, it becomes the truth.
This isn’t an innocent you-say-tomato moment; this is a very problematic development. The result of all this Russian coverage is that Russians’ understanding of what happened is as follows. At best, the crash is an unfortunate accident on the part of the Ukrainian military that the West is trying to pin on Russia, which had nothing to do with it; at worst, it is all part of a nefarious conspiracy to drag Russia into an apocalyptic war with the West. So whereas the West sees the crash as a game-changer, the Russians do not see why a black swan event has to change anything or they want to resist what they see is a provocation. To them, after a few days of watching Russian television, it’s not at all clear what happened nor that their government is somehow responsible for this tragedy. And the more we insist on it, the less likely the Russians are to agree.
Floriana Fossato, a longtime scholar of Russian media, says that this, coupled with the media’s conscious use of the Soviet language of crisis—“traitors,” “fascists,” “fifth columns”—quickly brings to the surface the psychological demons of a society massively traumatized by the twentieth century, traumas that society has never adequately addressed. The result, she says, is a kind of collective PTSD-meets-Stockholm Syndrome.
In Russians' view, “Americans have recreated the situation where they have excuse for intervention,” Fossato says. “No one admits that they are afraid, but they are. They are panicked. And they are right in being afraid because they know what happened, and they know there must be an answer to what is going on. And so they lock onto Putin for protection. This is why they don’t turn to Putin and ask him to do something.”
But in addition to the Russian public not clamoring for decisive action from Putin, there is a far more serious problem. As The New Yorker's David Remnick noted in his column on the crash of MH17, Putin has become prisoner to his own propaganda machine, much as he’s become prisoner of the rebels he thought were doing his geopolitical dirty work in Ukraine.
After Putin’s ascent, media became the flexible element that could be readjusted for any twist or turn of the political rudder. “Today, it’s the opposite,” says Gleb Pavlovsky, a political consultant who helped Putin win his first election and was a Kremlin advisor for years afterwards. “It’s almost impossible to turn the rudder of the picture that’s formed on television because it would mean losing the audience they formed in this year” of sword-brandishing and imperialistic conquest.
This audience is now fired up and brandishing its own swords, and the propaganda apparatus, much like the rebels in eastern Ukraine, has rolled on and on, fed by inertia and paranoia, reproducing and magnifying itself with each newscast. The sensationalized newscasts are now neck-and-neck, ratings-wise, with the sitcoms. “It keeps people in a traumatized state,” Pavlovsky says. “It’s notable in media metrics, and in conversations with people. They lose their sanity, they become paranoid and aggressive.”
This has had a noticeable impact on the ruling class, Pavlovsky says, which has to watch this stuff in order to stay au courant. And they become less sane as a result, too, which limits their ability to adequately assess a situation such as this and devise a good way out of it.
“It’s noticeable that the Kremlin is much more tempered than Russian TV but can’t change it,” Pavlovsky says. “It’s fallen into a trap, so it's now trying to function within the strictures of this picture.” He cites the example of the PR contortions the Kremlin had to use just to announce that it would not send troops into eastern Ukraine. “In this seemingly controlled media, any rational political arguments of the state have to be hidden and packaged in idiotic, jingoistic rhetoric,” Pavlovsky says.
None of this looks very good for the West, which is clearly hoping that MH17 is the thing that will bring Putin to his senses and get him to agree to some kind of off-ramp, or, at least, a deescalation. But that’s hard to do if neither your public nor your political class see it as a game-changer or as anything that should force Russia to end this game.
“Of course it gets in Putin’s way. He has to be the hero of this TV material, he’s not free from it anymore,” says Pavlovsky. “I have a feeling he's not very comfortable right now.”
http://www.newrepublic.com/
Did you know that the crash of MH17 was all part of an American conspiracy to provoke a big war with Russia?
Well, it’s all true—at least if you live in Russia, because this is the Malaysia Airlines crash story that you’d be seeing.
READ: I Slept Next to the Wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17As the crisis surrounding the plane crash deepens and as calls for Vladimir Putin to act grow louder, it’s worth noting that they’re not really getting through to Putin’s subjects. The picture of the catastrophe that the Russian people are seeing on their television screens is very different from that on screens in much of the rest of the world, and the discrepancy does not bode well for a sane resolution to this stand-off.
Western media has been vacillating for days between calling Putin a murderer and peppering their coverage with allegedlys, telling the heart-rending tales of the victims, scrounging for anonymous leaks to link the Russians to the downed jet, and punditizing about exit ramps.
But in Russia, television—most of it owned or controlled by the Kremlin—is trying to muddy the water with various experts who insist that there is no way that an SA-11 missile system could possibly have downed a plane flying that high. And, mind you, this is not part of a larger debate of could they, or couldn’t they; this is all of Russian television and state-friendly papers pushing one line: The pro-Russian separatists we’ve been supporting all these months couldn’t have done this. Watching some of these Russian newscasts, one comes away with the impression of a desperate defense attorney scrounging for experts and angles, or a bad kid caught red-handed by the principal, trying to twist his way out of a situation in which he has no chance.
READ: Malaysia Air Corpses Used as Sickening PR Stunt for Rebels' Fake RepublicAnd that’s when they’re not simply peddling conspiracy theories, which have become a kind of symbiotic feedback loop between state TV and the most inventive corners of the Internet. The best of the bunch is, of course, an elaborate one: MH17 is actually MH370, that Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared into the Indian Ocean. According to this theory, the plane didn’t disappear at all, “it was taken to an American military base, Diego-Garcia.”
Then it was taken to Holland. On the necessary day and hour, it flew out, bound for Malaysia, but inside were not live people, but corpses. The plane was flown not by real pilots; it was on autopilot. Or take-off (a complicated procedure) was executed by live pilots, who then ejected on parachutes. Then the plane flew automatically. In the necessary spot, it was blown up, without even using a surface-to-air missile. Instead the plane was packed with a bomb, just like the CIA did on 9/11.The theory also notes that the passports of victims at the crash site all look brand new even though there was an explosion and a fire. “That is, the passports were tossed in [after the crash].” And, most damningly, all the victims’ Facebook pages were created in one day and the media is not showing any of the victims’ families, just the crash site. Though this is not true of Western media, Russian television has not featured any of this. “There’s very little talk about the human cost of this catastrophe,” says independent television analyst Arina Borodina, formerly of the prominent Russian daily Kommersant. “Instead we’re seeing these unbelievable versions. For example, that someone had actually been hunting for the president or that some of the locals saw parachutists coming down from a height of 30,000 feet.”
But though it may look unconvincing to us in the West, that is because we have seen and read other things that contradict it. The Russian media space has become so uniform and independent voices so cowed and marginalized that there is no counterweight and, when there’s no counterweight, if you repeat a thing often enough, it becomes the truth.
This isn’t an innocent you-say-tomato moment; this is a very problematic development. The result of all this Russian coverage is that Russians’ understanding of what happened is as follows. At best, the crash is an unfortunate accident on the part of the Ukrainian military that the West is trying to pin on Russia, which had nothing to do with it; at worst, it is all part of a nefarious conspiracy to drag Russia into an apocalyptic war with the West. So whereas the West sees the crash as a game-changer, the Russians do not see why a black swan event has to change anything or they want to resist what they see is a provocation. To them, after a few days of watching Russian television, it’s not at all clear what happened nor that their government is somehow responsible for this tragedy. And the more we insist on it, the less likely the Russians are to agree.
Floriana Fossato, a longtime scholar of Russian media, says that this, coupled with the media’s conscious use of the Soviet language of crisis—“traitors,” “fascists,” “fifth columns”—quickly brings to the surface the psychological demons of a society massively traumatized by the twentieth century, traumas that society has never adequately addressed. The result, she says, is a kind of collective PTSD-meets-Stockholm Syndrome.
In Russians' view, “Americans have recreated the situation where they have excuse for intervention,” Fossato says. “No one admits that they are afraid, but they are. They are panicked. And they are right in being afraid because they know what happened, and they know there must be an answer to what is going on. And so they lock onto Putin for protection. This is why they don’t turn to Putin and ask him to do something.”
But in addition to the Russian public not clamoring for decisive action from Putin, there is a far more serious problem. As The New Yorker's David Remnick noted in his column on the crash of MH17, Putin has become prisoner to his own propaganda machine, much as he’s become prisoner of the rebels he thought were doing his geopolitical dirty work in Ukraine.
After Putin’s ascent, media became the flexible element that could be readjusted for any twist or turn of the political rudder. “Today, it’s the opposite,” says Gleb Pavlovsky, a political consultant who helped Putin win his first election and was a Kremlin advisor for years afterwards. “It’s almost impossible to turn the rudder of the picture that’s formed on television because it would mean losing the audience they formed in this year” of sword-brandishing and imperialistic conquest.
This audience is now fired up and brandishing its own swords, and the propaganda apparatus, much like the rebels in eastern Ukraine, has rolled on and on, fed by inertia and paranoia, reproducing and magnifying itself with each newscast. The sensationalized newscasts are now neck-and-neck, ratings-wise, with the sitcoms. “It keeps people in a traumatized state,” Pavlovsky says. “It’s notable in media metrics, and in conversations with people. They lose their sanity, they become paranoid and aggressive.”
This has had a noticeable impact on the ruling class, Pavlovsky says, which has to watch this stuff in order to stay au courant. And they become less sane as a result, too, which limits their ability to adequately assess a situation such as this and devise a good way out of it.
“It’s noticeable that the Kremlin is much more tempered than Russian TV but can’t change it,” Pavlovsky says. “It’s fallen into a trap, so it's now trying to function within the strictures of this picture.” He cites the example of the PR contortions the Kremlin had to use just to announce that it would not send troops into eastern Ukraine. “In this seemingly controlled media, any rational political arguments of the state have to be hidden and packaged in idiotic, jingoistic rhetoric,” Pavlovsky says.
None of this looks very good for the West, which is clearly hoping that MH17 is the thing that will bring Putin to his senses and get him to agree to some kind of off-ramp, or, at least, a deescalation. But that’s hard to do if neither your public nor your political class see it as a game-changer or as anything that should force Russia to end this game.
“Of course it gets in Putin’s way. He has to be the hero of this TV material, he’s not free from it anymore,” says Pavlovsky. “I have a feeling he's not very comfortable right now.”
http://www.newrepublic.com/
MB Terengganu iberkrar menyokong kepimpinan Najib Tun Razak
Written By Unknown on Wednesday, 14 May 2014 | 05:52
Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (Adun) Barisan Nasional (BN)
Terengganu berikrar menyatakan sokongan tidak berbelah bahagi kepada
Menteri Besar baharu, Datuk Ahmad Razif Abdul Rahman.
Ikrar menyokong kepimpinan Adun Seberang Takir itu dinyatakan wakil rakyat berkenaan dihadapan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak dan timbalannya, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin dalam pertemuan khas di Bangunan Perdana Putra di sini, Rabu.
Adun Kuala Berang, Datuk Tengku Putera Tengku Awang berkata, kesemua Adun BN di Terengganu akan membantu Ahmad Razif meneruskan agenda pembangunan negeri demi kesejahteraan rakyat.
“Tidak ada lagi keretakan, malah perpaduan antara kami makin kukuh.
“Apabila berlakunya isu ini dan selepas mengadakan pertemuan dengan Datuk Seri Najib dan Tan Sri Muhyiddin, kami mendapat suntikan baharu. Hubungan kami bertambah erat dan penuh kemesraan,” katanya kepada pemberita di sini.
Terdahulu, Najib dan Muhyiddin mengadakan pertemuan tertutup dengan Adun Terengganu yang diketuai Ahmad Razif bagi membincangkan mengenai kemelut politik yang melanda negeri itu sejak Isnin lalu.
Bagaimanapun, Adun Hulu Besut, Nawi Mohamad tidak hadir pada pertemuan itu atas faktor kesihatan. Hadir sama, Speaker DUN Terenggau, Mohd Zubir Embong.
Mazlan Ngah: Bekas Pengarah Yayasan Islam Terengganu Dilantik Setiausaha Sutit MB Terengganu
Bekas Pengarah Yayasan Islam
Terengganu, Md Kamaru Al-Amin Ismail dilantik Setiausaha Sulit Kanan
kepada Menteri Besar berkuatkuasa hari ini susulan pelantikan Menteri
Besar yang baharu, Dato’ Ahmad Razif Abd Rahman.
Beliau berkata akan berlaku beberapa lagi bertukaran untuk disesuaikan dengan pertukaran Menteri Besar yang baharu.
“Kalau tiada pertukaran Menteri Besar pun pertukaran kakitangan itu tetap akan berlaku sebab ada yang bersara pada Jun ini,” katanya.
Sementara itu, Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif Terengganu Incorporated Sdn Berhad, Dato’ Wan Ahamad Wan Muda dan Setiausaha Sulit Kanan Menteri Besar sebelum ini iaitu Azman Ghani @ Hussin masing-masing ditukar ke jawatan baharu iaitu sebagai Pegawai Jawatan Kumpulan Pejabat Setiausaha Kerajaan Terengganu.
Beliau berkata akan berlaku beberapa lagi bertukaran untuk disesuaikan dengan pertukaran Menteri Besar yang baharu. “Kalau tiada pertukaran Menteri Besar pun pertukaran kakitangan itu tetap akan berlaku sebab ada yang bersara pada Jun ini,” katanya.
Sementara itu, Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif Terengganu Incorporated Sdn Berhad, Dato’ Wan Ahamad Wan Muda dan Setiausaha Sulit Kanan Menteri Besar sebelum ini iaitu Azman Ghani @ Hussin masing-masing ditukar ke jawatan baharu iaitu sebagai Pegawai Jawatan Kumpulan Pejabat Setiausaha Kerajaan Terengganu.
Rosli Daud: keluar UMNO kerana 'terkejut'
“Tindakan saya itu satu tindakan yang terburu-buru jugak.
“Pertama sekali saya nak minta maaf kepada pengundi saya dan kepada ahli Parti samada di Parlimen Dungun mahupun Bukit Besi atas keputusan yang telah saya buat,”
PUTRAJAYA – Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (ADUN) kawasan Bukit Besi, Roslee Daud mengakui membuat keputusan terburu-buru ketika mengambil keputusan untuk keluar UMNO.
Beliau mendakwa membuat keputusan itu selepas terkejut dengan berita pertukaran Menteri Besar di Terengganu.
Roslee turut mendakwa keputusan awal yang dibuat oleh beliau diambil tanpa dipengaruhi oleh sesiapa sebaliknya, dan mengaku ia merupakan kesilapan dirinya sendiri.
“Tanpa arahan sesiapa. Itu adalah keputusan saya dan pertimbangan yang saya buat ketika itu. Sebab terkejut dengan keputusan sebab sebelum ini keputusan yang telah dibuat ini kita semua tidak sedar,” katanya.
Beliau berkata demikian selepas sesi pertemuan antara ADUN Barisan Nasional Terengganu dengan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak di Perdana Putra.
Pada masa sama, Roslee cukup yakin bahawa bekas Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Ahmad Said akan kembali ke pangkuan UMNO.
Tindakan Rosli menarik balik surat keluar daripada UMNO dan kembali menjadi wakil rakyat BN telah mendapat liputan meluas media kerana ia bakal menjerumuskan Terengganu ke dalam krisis politik yang boleh membawa kepada pertukaran pentadbiran kerajaan negeri.
Trio quit UMNO....Kami kecewa dengan Najib"..
Written By Unknown on Tuesday, 13 May 2014 | 05:50
Former Terengganu
menteri besar Ahmad Said, who plunged the state into a crisis by
quitting together with another state assemblyperson late last night, has
said that others will follow suit.Speaking to Malaysiakini this morning, he however declined to reveal the number or the names of those who would quit.
"Insya-Allah (God willing), there will be more (who will resign)," he said.
Ahmad and Ajil assemblyperson Ghazali Taib (right), who is also a state exco member, had resigned just hours after the former was replaced as menteri besar yesterday evening.
Sources claimed that those likely to abandon ship include Bukit Besi rep Roslee Daud and Kemasik rep Rosli Othman. Both are also state executive council members.
The state Umno is believed to be in an emergency meeting on the matter.
Peeved with PM
Explaining his sudden move, Ahmad revealed that he quit following disappointment with Prime Minister and Umno president Najib Abdul Razak.
"I have worked in Umno for a long time. I told the PM that my daughter's wedding reception is on May 17 and asked for the change of MB to happen after that.
"He told me that was a personal matter, so I told him not to blame me if I quit the party," Ahmad (right), who is also Kijal assemblyperson, said.
Earlier, Umno secretary general Tengku Adnan Mansor reportedly said that he expects no issues within Umno following the swap as it was accepted by local leaders.
According to Star Online last night, Ahmad Razif Abdul Rahman was sworn in yesterday evening in the presence of the entire executive council.
Two exco members slated to be axed
Meanwhile, an opposition state leader told Malaysiakini that it is unclear whether the Kemasik rep would resign from Umno.
However, he added both Rosli (Kemasik) and Roslee (Bukit Besi) were expected to be dropped from the exco line-up under the new menteri besar, Ahmad Razif (right).
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the opposition rep said that Ghazali, on the other hand, wanted to quit from Umno even before the latest crisis.
Apart from this, he also revealed that two other exco members - Hulu Besut rep Nawi Mohamad and Pengkalan Berangan rep A Latiff Awang - are also aligned to Ahmad Said.
"The state assembly speaker is also closely linked to the former MB. Zubir Embong was appointed as speaker because of his ties with Ahmad," he added.
Contrary to the Star Online report, New Straits Times this morning said Ghazali was among five assemblypersons who were absent from Ahmad Razif's swearing in ceremony.
However, the Umno-linked daily said it is not known whether the other four, which included Mahdi Musa (Kota Putera), Rosli (Kemasik), A Latiff (Pengkalan Berangan) and Roslee (Bukit Besi) will make the same move.
Rumours are also abuzz that PAS president and Rhu Rendang rep Abdul Hadi Awang is expected to seek an audience with the state ruler, Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin, regarding the crisis tomorrow.
Ahmad Said is expected to hold a press conference later today.
SPEAKER NAFI DUN TERENGGANU DIBUBAR !!!
Beliau ketika dihubungi berkata, sehingga kini, pihaknya tidak menerima sebarang maklumat atau kenyataan berhubung perkara itu.
Katanya, perkara itu
tidak berlaku kerana mengikut prosedur, Menteri Besar perlu menghadap
dan mendapatkan perkenan Sultan Terengganu Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin,
namun perkara itu tidak berlaku setakat ini.
Beliau turut tidak
menolak kenyataan itu disebarkan pihak tidak bertanggungjawab untuk
mengeruhkan pergolakan yang berlaku di Terengganu ketika ini.
Barisan Nasional kini mempunyai 14 kerusi DUN, PAS (14), PKR (1) dan Bebas (3).
HM
Kebuntuan politik di Terengganu, Ahmad Said keluar Umno lepas letak jawatan MB
Terengganu berdepan dengan kebuntuan politik selepas Datuk Seri Ahmad
Said dan seorang lagi Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (Adun) Umno keluar
parti beberapa jam selepas bekas menteri besar itu meletakkan jawatan
bagi memberi laluan kepada Datuk Ahmad Razif Abdul Rahman semalam.
Tindakan Adun Kijal itu bersama Adun Ajil, Ghazali Taib meninggalkan Umno dan menjadi bebas menyebabkan kerajaan negeri Barisan Nasional (BN) mempunyai jumlah kerusi sama dengan Pakatan Rakyat (PR) iaitu 15 kerusi Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) bagi setiap gabungan dalam DUN yang mempunyai majoriti 32 kerusi – pertama kali dalam sejarah Malaysia.
Ahmad yang mula menjadi MB pada 2008 juga berkata lebih ramai Adun Umno akan keluar parti tidak lama lagi – menambahkan lagi tekanan politik kepada presiden parti Datuk Seri Najib Razak yang diserang kerana kelemahan kepimpinannya selepas Pilihan Raya Umum ke-13 (PRU13) lalu.
"Insya-Allah ada lagi," katanya dipetik daripada portal berita Malaysiakini.
Bekas Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Ahmad Said bersalaman dengan penyokong PAS pada kempen pilihan raya tahun lalu. Gambar fail.Ahmad
dan Ghazali meletakkan jawatan daripada parti pemerintah itu beberapa
jam selepas Ahmad Razif mengangkat sumpah sebagai menteri besar,
mengesahkan spekulasi dua menteri besar akan ditukar setahun selepas
PRU13.
Salinan surat peletakan jawatan Ahmad disiarkan oleh portal berita Astro Awani. Difahamkan, Adun Kijal itu akan bertemu media hari ini untuk menjelaskan mengapa beliau keluar Umno.
Ahmad dilaporkan kecewa dengan keputusan Najib untuk menggugurkannya semalam.
"Saya sudah lama bekerja dengan Umno. Saya sudah beritahu PM kenduri kahwin anak saya pada 17 Mei dan tukar selesai selesai kenduri.
"PM kata itu soal peribadi. Jadi saya beritahu, kalau saya keluar (parti), jangan salahkan saya," katanya dipetik daripada Malaysiakini.
Ahmad menjadi tajuk utama berita baru-baru ini kerana lawatan kontroversinya ke Antartika bagi memperlajari perubahan iklim di kawasan ais itu.
Dalam pilihan raya umum 5 Mei lalu, BN menang 17 kerusi DUN berbanding PR 15 kerusi dan mendapat separuh daripada 8 kerusi Parlimen di negeri yang kaya dengan minyak itu.
Adun Seberang Takir, Ahmad Razif mengangkat sumpah sebagai menteri besar Terengganu di depan Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin di Istana Syarqiyyah di Cendering pada jam 9.25 malam semalam.
Pelantikannya dilakukan beberapa jam selepas Setiausaha Agung BN, Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor mengesahkan Ahmad sudah menghantar surat peletakan jawatan sebagai menteri besar.
Secara konvensyennya, kebanyakan ahli politik menandatangani surat peletakan jawatan undur tarikh sebelum memegang jawatan di Malaysia.
Ahmad yang mengawal sesetengah pecahan dalam Umno Terengganu mengangkat sumpah sebagai menteri besar pada Mac 2008, walaupun Umno memilih Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh.
Idris kini merupakan menteri pendidikan II dalam Kabinet Najib.
Tahun lalu, Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR) berkata ketika Pilihan Raya Kecil (PRK) Kuala Besut mereka tidak boleh campur tangan di Terengganu jika berlaku DUN tergantung disebabkan BN menang tipis.
Menurut SPR, terpulang kepada parti politik untuk menyelesaikan masalah itu. – 13 Mei, 2014.
Tindakan Adun Kijal itu bersama Adun Ajil, Ghazali Taib meninggalkan Umno dan menjadi bebas menyebabkan kerajaan negeri Barisan Nasional (BN) mempunyai jumlah kerusi sama dengan Pakatan Rakyat (PR) iaitu 15 kerusi Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) bagi setiap gabungan dalam DUN yang mempunyai majoriti 32 kerusi – pertama kali dalam sejarah Malaysia.
Ahmad yang mula menjadi MB pada 2008 juga berkata lebih ramai Adun Umno akan keluar parti tidak lama lagi – menambahkan lagi tekanan politik kepada presiden parti Datuk Seri Najib Razak yang diserang kerana kelemahan kepimpinannya selepas Pilihan Raya Umum ke-13 (PRU13) lalu.
Bekas Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Ahmad Said bersalaman dengan penyokong PAS pada kempen pilihan raya tahun lalu. Gambar fail.Ahmad
dan Ghazali meletakkan jawatan daripada parti pemerintah itu beberapa
jam selepas Ahmad Razif mengangkat sumpah sebagai menteri besar,
mengesahkan spekulasi dua menteri besar akan ditukar setahun selepas
PRU13.Salinan surat peletakan jawatan Ahmad disiarkan oleh portal berita Astro Awani. Difahamkan, Adun Kijal itu akan bertemu media hari ini untuk menjelaskan mengapa beliau keluar Umno.
Ahmad dilaporkan kecewa dengan keputusan Najib untuk menggugurkannya semalam.
"Saya sudah lama bekerja dengan Umno. Saya sudah beritahu PM kenduri kahwin anak saya pada 17 Mei dan tukar selesai selesai kenduri.
"PM kata itu soal peribadi. Jadi saya beritahu, kalau saya keluar (parti), jangan salahkan saya," katanya dipetik daripada Malaysiakini.
Ahmad menjadi tajuk utama berita baru-baru ini kerana lawatan kontroversinya ke Antartika bagi memperlajari perubahan iklim di kawasan ais itu.
Dalam pilihan raya umum 5 Mei lalu, BN menang 17 kerusi DUN berbanding PR 15 kerusi dan mendapat separuh daripada 8 kerusi Parlimen di negeri yang kaya dengan minyak itu.
Adun Seberang Takir, Ahmad Razif mengangkat sumpah sebagai menteri besar Terengganu di depan Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin di Istana Syarqiyyah di Cendering pada jam 9.25 malam semalam.
Pelantikannya dilakukan beberapa jam selepas Setiausaha Agung BN, Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor mengesahkan Ahmad sudah menghantar surat peletakan jawatan sebagai menteri besar.
Secara konvensyennya, kebanyakan ahli politik menandatangani surat peletakan jawatan undur tarikh sebelum memegang jawatan di Malaysia.
Ahmad yang mengawal sesetengah pecahan dalam Umno Terengganu mengangkat sumpah sebagai menteri besar pada Mac 2008, walaupun Umno memilih Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh.
Idris kini merupakan menteri pendidikan II dalam Kabinet Najib.
Tahun lalu, Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR) berkata ketika Pilihan Raya Kecil (PRK) Kuala Besut mereka tidak boleh campur tangan di Terengganu jika berlaku DUN tergantung disebabkan BN menang tipis.
Menurut SPR, terpulang kepada parti politik untuk menyelesaikan masalah itu. – 13 Mei, 2014.
BN loses majority in Terengganu; more will follow, claims ex-MB's aide
KUALA TERENGGANU: Bukit Besi assemblyman Roslee Daud quit Umno
Tuesday morning, joining ex-Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Said and Ajil
assemblyman Ghazali Taib to become independent reps.This is confirmed by an aide of Ahmad, who added that there would be "more to come".
Late Monday, Ahmad quit the party hours after he was replaced by Datuk Ahmad Razif Abdul Rahman as Terengganu Mentri Besar.
The Kijal assemblyman was soon joined by Ghazali.
Roslee's letter was addressed to Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor and was courtesy copied to the State Assembly Speaker.
Former Mentri Besar Ahmad Said is expected to hold a press conference on Tuesday.
The latest developments leave Barisan Nasional with 14 state seats, one fewer than Pakatan Rakyat's 15 in the 32-seat assembly.
In the 13th General Election, Barisan won 17 state seats against Pakatan Rakyat's 15, and managed to win half of the eight Parliamentary seats in the state.
Earlier on Monday, Seberang Takir assemblyman Datuk Ahmad Razif Abdul Rahman, 49, took his oath of office before Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin at Istana Syarqiyyah in Cendering here at 9.25pm.
This came hours after Barisan secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor officially confirmed the resignation of Ahmad as Mentri Besar.
Terengganu
Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Said (third right) had quit Umno to be
come an independent assemblyman for Kijal. — Bernama picKUALA
LUMPUR, May 13 — The Terengganu Barisan Nasional (BN) government is in a
precarious position and could fall at any time, sources say, following
the resignation of Datuk Seri Ahmad Said from Umno just hours after he
was forced out of power.“Please be informed that I am resigning my position in the party effective immediately. I am also declaring my exit from Umno to be an independent representative for the state constituency of Kijal,” the 57-year-old wrote in a letter dated May 12, 2014 and addressed to the Umno secretary-general.
The letter, published by Malay satellite broadcaster, Astro Awani on its website early this morning, did not state any reason for Ahmad’s departure from the ruling party in the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.
The 57-year-old was joined by Ajil assemblyman Ghazali Taib in quitting Umno. It is understood that a number of other Umno assemblymen aligned to Ahmad Said are also planning to quit the party.
The Malay Mail Online understands that both state lawmakers are now meeting Terengganu PAS and might cross over, giving the opposition pact the two seats it needs to form the majority in the state legislative assembly.
Ghazali, 51, told a friend late yesterday evening that Ahmad might join PAS and he would follow.
Ahmad, who was reappointed Terengganu mentri besar for a second term on May 9 last year, was forced to step down from office mid-term, reportedly due to the BN’s weakest polls performance in a decade.
The BN barely kept the state government with 17 state seats against Pakatan Rakyat’s 15 seats in Election 2013.
Under Ahmad’s leadership, the BN also won only half of the eight federal seats in Terengganu.
In Election 2008, the BN coalition had snagged 24 out of 32 state seats under the leadership of the-then mentri besar Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh, with the remaining eight won by the opposition PAS.
Despite the BN victory, the state Ruler declined to reappoint Idris — the coalition’s choice — as mentri besar for a second term, choosing Ahmad instead.
The four-day impasse between the palace and the ruling coalition nearly caused a constitutional crisis in the state that ended after then-prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi backed down and accepted the Terengganu Sultan’s choice.
Terengganu deadlock as Ahmad Said quits Umno hours after resigning as MB
Terengganu is facing a political deadlock today as Datuk Seri Ahmad
Said and an Umno assemblyman turned independent hours after the
headstrong menteri besar resigned to make way for Datuk Ahmad Razif
Abdul Rahman yesterday.Ahmad, who first became MB in 2008, also said that more Umno assemblymen are expected to quit the party in coming days – causing a political headache for party president Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who has been under attack for a lacklustre leadership after the 13th general election (GE13) last year.
"InsyaAllah (God willing), there will be more (who will resign)," he was quoted as saying by the Malaysiakini news portal.
Ahmad and Ghazali resigned from the ruling party within hours after Razif was sworn in as menteri besar, confirming speculation that at least two Umno menteris besar would be replaced a year after GE13.
A copy of Ahmad's resignation letter was published by the Astro Awani portal. It is understood that the Kijal assemblyman will meet the media later today to explain his resignation from Umno.
Ahmad told the news portal this morning that he quit as he was disappointed with Najib's decision to drop him yesterday.
"I have worked in Umno for a long time. I told the PM that my child's wedding reception is on May 17 and asked for the change of MB to happen after that.
"He told me that was a personal matter, so I told him not to blame me if I quit the party," he was quoted as saying by the news portal.
Ahmad hit the headlines recently for a controversial official visit to Antarctica ostensibly to study climate change in the ice-bound continent – which is different from the sun-kissed east coast state.
In the May 5 general election last year, BN won 17 state seats against PR's 15, and also captured half of the eight federal seats in the oil-rich state.
Razif, the Seberang Takir assemblyman, took his oath of office before Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin at Istana Syarqiyyah in Cendering at 9.25pm yesterday.
His appointment came just hours after BN secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor officially confirmed Ahmad had sent his resignation letter as menteri besar.
By convention, most politicians have to sign undated resignation letters before taking up government posts in Malaysia.
Ahmad, who controls a faction in Umno Terengganu, was sworn in as MB in March 2008 despite Umno confirming that Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh would return to the post.
Idris is now Education Minister II in Najib's cabinet.
Last year, the Election Commission (EC) said at the Kuala Besut by-election that it could not interfere if there was a hung state assembly in Terengganu because of the slim BN win, saying it was up to the political parties to settle the issue. – May 13, 2014.
Ahmad Said and Ghazali Taib quits Umno
KUALA TERENGGANU: In a dramatic twist of events, former Terengganu
Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Said announced that he had quit Umno and
become an independent.
Joining him is Ajil assemblyman Ghazali Taib.
If the duo decided to be opposition-friendly independents, the opposition will have the upper hand with 17 seats, the same number held by BN after the 13th general election last year.
Read more: Ahmad Said and Ghazali Taib quits Umno - Latest - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/latest/ahmad-said-and-ghazali-taib-quits-umno-1.595221#ixzz31ZYwKfsd
Coming soon: a brain implant to restore memory
WASHINGTON, May 2: In the next few months, highly
secretive US military researchers say they will unveil new advances
toward developing a brain implant that could one day restore a wounded
soldier’s memory.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is forging ahead with a four-year plan to build a sophisticated memory stimulator, as part of President Barack Obama’s $100 million initiative to better understand the human brain.
The science has never been done before, and raises ethical questions about whether the human mind should be manipulated in the name of staving off war injuries or managing the aging brain.
Some say those who could benefit include the five million Americans with Alzheimer’s disease and the nearly 300,000 US military men and women who have sustained traumatic brain injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“If you have been injured in the line of duty and you can’t remember your family, we want to be able to restore those kinds of functions,” DARPA programme manager Justin Sanchez said this week at a conference in the US capital convened by the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas.
“We think that we can develop neuroprosthetic devices that can directly interface with the hippocampus, and can restore the first type of memories we are looking at, the declarative memories,” he said.
Declarative memories are recollections of people, events, facts and figures, and no research has ever shown they can be put back once they are lost.
What researchers have been able to do so far is help reduce tremors in people with Parkinson’s disease, cut back on seizures among epileptics and even boost memory in some Alzheimer’s patients through a process called deep brain stimulation.
Those devices were inspired by cardiac pacemakers, and pulse electricity into the brain much like a steady drum beat, but they don’t work for everyone.
Experts say a much more nuanced approach is needed when it comes to restoring memory.
“Memory is patterns and connections,” explained Robert Hampson, an associate professor at Wake Forest University.
“For us to come up with a memory prosthetic, we would actually have to have something that delivers specific patterns,” said Hampson, adding that he could not comment specifically on DARPA’s plans.
Hampson’s research on rodents and monkeys has shown that neurons in the hippocampus — the part of the brain that processes memory — fire differently when they see red or blue, or a picture of a face versus a type of food.
Equipped with this knowledge, Hampson and colleagues have been able to extend the animals’ short-term, working memory using brain prosthetics to stimulate the hippocampus.
They could coax a drugged monkey into performing closer to normal at a memory task, and confuse it by manipulating the signal so that it would choose the opposite image of what it remembered.
According to Hampson, to restore a human’s specific memory, scientists would have to know the precise pattern for that memory.
Instead, scientists in the field think they could improve a person’s memory by simply helping the brain work more like it used to before the injury.
“The idea is to restore a function back to normal or near normal of the memory processing areas of the brain so that the person can access their formed memories, and so that they can form new memories as needed,” Hampson said.
It’s easy to see how manipulating memories in people could open up an ethical minefield, said Arthur Caplan, a medical ethicist at New York University’s Langone Medical Center.
“When you fool around with the brain, you are fooling around with personal identity,” said Caplan, who advises DARPA on matters of synthetic biology but not neuroscience.
“The cost of altering the mind is you risk losing sense of self, and that is a new kind of risk we never faced.”
When it comes to soldiers, the potential for erasing memories or inserting new ones could interfere with combat techniques, make warriors more violent and less conscientious, or even thwart investigations into war crimes, he said.
“If I could take a pill or put a helmet on and have some memories wiped out, maybe I don’t have to live with the consequences of what I do,” Caplan said.
DARPA’s website says that because its “programmes push the leading edge of science”, the agency “periodically convenes scholars with expertise in these issues to discuss relevant ethical, legal, and social issues.”
Just who might be first in line for the experiments is another of the many unknowns.
Sanchez said the path forward will be formally announced in the next few months.
“We have got some of the most talented scientists in our country that will be working on this project. So stay tuned. Lots of exciting things will be coming in the very near future.”
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is forging ahead with a four-year plan to build a sophisticated memory stimulator, as part of President Barack Obama’s $100 million initiative to better understand the human brain.
The science has never been done before, and raises ethical questions about whether the human mind should be manipulated in the name of staving off war injuries or managing the aging brain.
Some say those who could benefit include the five million Americans with Alzheimer’s disease and the nearly 300,000 US military men and women who have sustained traumatic brain injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“If you have been injured in the line of duty and you can’t remember your family, we want to be able to restore those kinds of functions,” DARPA programme manager Justin Sanchez said this week at a conference in the US capital convened by the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas.
“We think that we can develop neuroprosthetic devices that can directly interface with the hippocampus, and can restore the first type of memories we are looking at, the declarative memories,” he said.
Declarative memories are recollections of people, events, facts and figures, and no research has ever shown they can be put back once they are lost.
What researchers have been able to do so far is help reduce tremors in people with Parkinson’s disease, cut back on seizures among epileptics and even boost memory in some Alzheimer’s patients through a process called deep brain stimulation.
Those devices were inspired by cardiac pacemakers, and pulse electricity into the brain much like a steady drum beat, but they don’t work for everyone.
Experts say a much more nuanced approach is needed when it comes to restoring memory.
“Memory is patterns and connections,” explained Robert Hampson, an associate professor at Wake Forest University.
“For us to come up with a memory prosthetic, we would actually have to have something that delivers specific patterns,” said Hampson, adding that he could not comment specifically on DARPA’s plans.
Hampson’s research on rodents and monkeys has shown that neurons in the hippocampus — the part of the brain that processes memory — fire differently when they see red or blue, or a picture of a face versus a type of food.
Equipped with this knowledge, Hampson and colleagues have been able to extend the animals’ short-term, working memory using brain prosthetics to stimulate the hippocampus.
They could coax a drugged monkey into performing closer to normal at a memory task, and confuse it by manipulating the signal so that it would choose the opposite image of what it remembered.
According to Hampson, to restore a human’s specific memory, scientists would have to know the precise pattern for that memory.
Instead, scientists in the field think they could improve a person’s memory by simply helping the brain work more like it used to before the injury.
“The idea is to restore a function back to normal or near normal of the memory processing areas of the brain so that the person can access their formed memories, and so that they can form new memories as needed,” Hampson said.
It’s easy to see how manipulating memories in people could open up an ethical minefield, said Arthur Caplan, a medical ethicist at New York University’s Langone Medical Center.
“When you fool around with the brain, you are fooling around with personal identity,” said Caplan, who advises DARPA on matters of synthetic biology but not neuroscience.
“The cost of altering the mind is you risk losing sense of self, and that is a new kind of risk we never faced.”
When it comes to soldiers, the potential for erasing memories or inserting new ones could interfere with combat techniques, make warriors more violent and less conscientious, or even thwart investigations into war crimes, he said.
“If I could take a pill or put a helmet on and have some memories wiped out, maybe I don’t have to live with the consequences of what I do,” Caplan said.
DARPA’s website says that because its “programmes push the leading edge of science”, the agency “periodically convenes scholars with expertise in these issues to discuss relevant ethical, legal, and social issues.”
Just who might be first in line for the experiments is another of the many unknowns.
Sanchez said the path forward will be formally announced in the next few months.
“We have got some of the most talented scientists in our country that will be working on this project. So stay tuned. Lots of exciting things will be coming in the very near future.”
- AFP
