83 arrested on US Columbus Day

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 14:54:53

US Police have cracked down on Columbus Day Parade protesters and arrested 83 including university professor Glenn Morris.

Glenn Morris is an associate professor of political science at the University of Colorado.

The protestors carried dismembered baby dolls covered with fake blood to protest the killing of Indians by the European newcomers.

Columbus Day is a holiday celebrating the anniversary of the October 12, 1492, the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas. Americans celebrate the event since 1934 as a national holiday.

The Indians, who consider themselves the first settlers of the continent, have organized rallies in protest to the national holiday. Denver's parade, which was started in 1907, has a troubled history of arrests and confrontations between Columbus supporters and detractors. Protesters have called him a slave trader who touched off centuries of genocide and oppression against native people.

American Indian Movement activist Russell Means was also among those arrested in this year's rallies.

Talking to the daily Le Monde, a 78-year-old Indian exclaimed how it was possible to discover a land which had already been inhabited by Indians since 12,000 years ago. When Columbus claimed he had discovered the continent, 80 million Indians already lived there.

Police questions Olmert over Leumi affair

09/10/2007 source almanartv National Fraud Unit investigators arrived at Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Jerusalem residence on Tuesday morning in order to question him over suspicions that he altered a government tender for the privatization of Bank Leumi to favor a bid lodged by a consortium controlled by his friends. On Monday, Major General Yohanan Danino, head of the Israel Police's Investigations and Intelligence Office, met with the team of investigators, which is led by National Fraud Unit chief Brigadier-General Shlomi Ayalon. Olmert has cleared two days off his schedule for the investigation. At the end of his investigation, the police will form an opinion on the case, which could take a number of weeks, and present it to the State Prosecutor's Office. The suspicions surfaced in 2005 when Olmert served as acting finance minister. Olmert is suspected of having sought to advance a bid for the controlling share of the bank filed by Frank Lowy and Daniel Abrams. Attorney General Menachem Mazuz ordered the police to probe Olmert's conduct during the bank's privatization. Investigators will present the prime minister with a line of questions and try to determine whether he tried to convince Lowy and Abrams to take part in the tender and what his motives were.

US appears guilty of torture: Pelosi

08/10/2007 The United States appears to be illegally torturing terror suspects contrary to denials by President George W. Bush, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday. The country's highest ranking Democrat also said that she still hoped to get most US occupation troops out of Iraq by the end of 2008, despite the party's repeated failure to win over enough Republicans in Congress to an exit strategy. Interviewed on Fox News Sunday, Pelosi said reported interrogation tactics such as simulated drowning, head slapping and exposure to extreme temperatures all amounted to banned torture. "There is a legal definition of torture that I believe this would fit. The president says it is not," she said. But the House speaker said she had received only limited briefings from the Bush administration on its interrogation tactics, and had not seen a controversial memo issued in 2005 by the Justice Department. The New York Times said last week the department's document had authorized violent techniques in interrogations of "war on terror" suspects in the same year that Congress explicitly banned torture. In an editorial Sunday, the New York Times accused Bush and his aides of conducting "a systematic campaign to mislead Congress, the American people and the world about those policies." The CIA had "modeled its techniques on the dungeons of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Soviet Union," it said, while the Washington Post opined that Bush's denials "can't change the facts." source almanarTV

Iraq vows to punish Blackwater guards

08/10/2007

Iraq has vowed to punish US security firm Blackwater after a probe found that its guards were not provoked when they opened fire on civilians in Baghdad three weeks ago, killing 17 people. The US embassy was tightlipped on Monday over whether those involved in the September 16 killings in Nisoor Square would be handed over for prosecution. The Iraqi government in its report into the September 16 killings released on Sunday said the Blackwater guards were unprovoked when they opened indiscriminate fire and that they should face legal punishment.
"The investigation committee appointed by Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki ... has finished its inquiry and has found that there was no evidence that the convoy of Blackwater came under fire directly or indirectly," a government statement said.
"Employees of the company violated the rules governing use of force by security companies," it said. "They have committed a crime and should be punished under the law."
It gave the toll from the shootings as 17 dead, considerably higher than the previous toll according to which at least 10 people had been killed. The statement said 22 people had been wounded. The Iraqi government would now take "judicial measures to punish the company," the statement added.
Blackwater claims its men were legitimately responding to an ambush while protecting a US State Department convoy.

Iraqi refugees protest against US bill

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 07:03:11

Rally of Iraqis in Damascus
Hundreds of Iraqi refugees in Syria have protested against a US Senate resolution that plans to divide the country into different regions.

"No for occupation and no for division," read a placard carried by one refugee. "Dividing Iraq is the start for dividing all countries in the region," read another.

The recent resolution calls on the Bush administration to encourage the Iraqi government and parliament to adhere to the country's constitution.

The Senate bill lays out a plan for a loose confederation of regions under a limited central government, leaving power with the regions.

Around 400 demonstrators who carried flags of the war-torn country gathered in the protest.

US military: Blackwater guilty

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 13:13:30

A US military report has concluded that Blackwater security guards opened fire on Iraqis without provocation and used excessive force.

Blackwater troops were involved in a Baghdad shootout last month that left up to 17 Iraqi civilians dead.

The report clearly states that private security firm was to blame for the Sept. 16 incident.

"It was obviously excessive, it was obviously wrong," said a US official who refused to be named.

"The civilians that were fired upon, they didn't have any weapons to fire back at them. And none of the IP (Iraqi police) or any of the local security forces fired back at them," the official was quoted as saying.

An Iraqi Interior Ministry official and five eyewitnesses described a second deadly shooting involving the same Blackwater guards minutes after the incident in Nisoor Square, the Washington Post reported.

North Carolina-based Blackwater has said its guards reacted lawfully to an attack on the convoy they were protecting.

Israel: Iranians to pay price for electing Ahmadinejad

source almanarTV

06/10/2007 Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech during the International Quds (Jerusalem) Day rallies in Tehran stirred fear in several Israelis and caused angry responses. Ahmadinejad suggested holding a referendum on the transfer of Israel's Jews to Europe, Canada or Alaska. "Let a referendum be held in Palestine. It is our clear proposal to European countries," Ahmadinejad said. Likud MK Yisrael Katz used improper words in his response when he said that Ahmadinejad should be destroyed. "The State of Israel has to declare that it will do all to prevent Iran from acquiring weapons of mass destruction and that should Iran harm Israel in any way, whole areas in Iran will be completely wiped out and the Iranian people who is responsible for electing Ahmadinejad will pay the price," Katz said. Kadima MK Tzachi Hanegbi also suggested that "The United States and leading European countries should urgently convene the Security Council to adopt a resolution that imposes more sanctions on Iran." However, Meretz MK Yossi Beilin claimed that Ahmadinejad was "dangerous to the world and his people" adding that people in the world should organize a coalition in order to "help the Iranian people to get rid of him".

Israeli forces launch raid into Gaza

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 07:58:07

Israeli tanks in Gaza

Israeli forces accompanied by tanks and Apache helicopters have entered Gaza city, opening fire at Palestinian residents.

At noon Saturday, three bulldozers backed by four tanks started to raze installations in the industrial zone near Karni commercial crossing in the east of Gaza City.

Residents in the area said the helicopters opened machine gunfire to provide cover for the forces on the ground while children threw stones at the tanks.

Palestinian fighters, carrying mines and rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers, fought the sudden incursion.

Earlier, the Israeli army rolled into eastern parts of central Gaza Strip and clashed with Palestinian militants before withdrawing in the morning, residents of al-Maghazi and al-Burij refugee camps told DPA.

The incursion came as a Palestinian research center for prisoners' issues called on Egypt to renew its mediation between Israel and the Palestinian factions that are holding an Israeli soldier in Gaza.

The Palestinian factions are demanding Israel release older prisoners, women, children and the infirm from its jails in exchange for the soldier. Israel is holding about 11,000 Palestinians.

Israel's toy soldiers

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:44:13
By Chris Hedges

Jewish teenagers in a military training camp

If you are a young Muslim American and head off to the Middle East for a spell in a fundamentalist “madrassa,” or religious school, Homeland Security will probably greet you at the airport when you return.

But if you are an American Jew and you join hundreds of teenagers from Europe and Mexico for an eight-week training course run by the Israel Defense Forces, you can post your picture wearing an Israeli army uniform and holding an automatic weapon on MySpace.

The Marva program, part summer camp part indoctrination, was launched in Israel in 1981. It allows participants, who must be Jewish and between the ages of 18 and 28, to fire weapons, live in military barracks in the Negev desert and saunter around in an Israeli military uniform saluting and taking long hikes with military packs. The Youth and Education Corps of the Israel Defense Forces run four 120-strong training sessions a year.

“Upon arrival, the participants experience an abrupt change into army life: wearing uniforms, accepting army discipline, and learning the programs and lessons integral to the program,” the Let Israelis Show You Israel Web site reads. “The program includes military content such as: navigation, field training, weapons training, shooting ranges, marches and more, as well as educational content such as: Zionism, Jewish Identity, history and knowledge of the land of Israel. All of this is taught in Hebrew in an intensive eight weeks.”

“The participants finish the program after completing a short, intensive, exhilarating military experience that allows them to taste Israel in a way that they never could before-as part of the Israel Defense Forces,” the site reads. “They leave the program with a feeling of belonging and a strong connection to Israel, and many return to Israel to continue the connection that was created in the framework of the Marva course.”

There are, of course, gushing testimonials about the program.
“I spent the first few days of Marva doubting my decision, wondering why I had come, wondering if there was any way out. With all of the running, yelling orders, discipline and Hebrew, I felt horribly out of place,” writes Canadian David Roth of his summer. “It was a completely different world from the one I was used to. All that changed, though, by the end of the first week. We had our first 'Masa' (Hike). It was very hard, but at the end, we all knew, our M16s were waiting for us at the 'tekes' (Ceremony). We got through the 8 kilometers and had our 'tekes' and got our guns. It felt amazing, and from that point on Marva was incredible.”

How have we reacted when we discovered that American Muslims were being taught in a foreign country to fire machine guns at paper figures and simulate military maneuvers? And what about the summer schools in Gaza organized by Islamic Jihad designed to train young Palestinians in the basics of military life? These Gaza camps, uncovered in 2001, were widely denounced by Israel as proof that the Palestinians were teaching their children to hate and kill.

The argument in favor of camps in Israel, as opposed to camps in Pakistan, is that these young men and women are not going to come back and use what they have learned to harm Americans. They are not terrorists. Muslims, however, have not cornered the market on terrorism and violence. Radical Jews have also been involved in terrorist attacks in Israel and the United States.

I discovered an American in Israel in 1989 named Robert Manning. A huge, burly man, Manning was living in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Kiyrat Arba. When I found him he was carrying a pistol, a large knife strapped to his leg and an M-16 assault rifle. He was part of a Jewish terrorist group called Committee for Protection and Safety of the Highways that set up ad hoc roadblocks and pulled Palestinians from cars to beat and often shoot them. He was a follower of Meir Kahane, the leader of the Jewish Defense League, who was implicated in terrorist attacks in the United States and Israel. Manning served as a reservist in the Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank.

Manning was wanted in California for murder. He had been charged in a 1980 mail-bomb killing as part of his involvement in the Jewish Defense League. The bomb was intended for the owner of a local computer firm, but the package holding the device was opened by the firm's secretary, Patricia Wilkerson, who was killed instantly by the blast.

Manning, full of bluster and a bitter racism toward Arabs, used as his pseudonym the name of the FBI agent in charge of his case, a bit of humor that backfired on him by confirming my suspicion of his identify. I obtained the picture from his California driver's license and showed it to his neighbors at Kiyrat Arba. They identified him from the photo. I wrote an article affirming that Manning, heavily armed and an active member of the Israeli army, was living in a Jewish settlement. The Israeli government, until that moment, said it had no information about his location. He was extradited in 1993 and sentenced the next year to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for 30 years. He is in a maximum-security prison in Florence, Colo.

Those who go through the Marva summer program are indoctrinated as thoroughly
as Muslims who go overseas and are told they are part of a greater jihad for Islam. The results, given Israel's close alliance with the United States, may not be negative for those in power in the United States, but it may be very negative for those Americans defined as the enemy, especially Muslims, should we suffer another 9/11. The program inculcates hatred and a belief in the efficacy of violence to solve the problems in the Middle East. It identifies Israel with militarism. It feeds the idea that a Jew born in Brooklyn has a birthright to settle in Israel that is denied to an American of Palestinian descent.

Jerusalem [al-Quds], aside from being one of the most beautiful cities in the world, is one of the most literate, creative and intellectual. Do these young men and women really know the best of Israel by spending eight weeks playing soldier and glorifying the military? Is the cause of Israel advanced by mirroring the twisted militarism of Islamic fundamentalists [(extremists)]?

Terrorists arise in all cultures, all nations and all religions. We have produced more than our share. Ask the people of Vietnam or Iraq. The danger of a military program such as these is that it solidifies a mind-set of us and them. It romanticizes violence. It widens the divide that leads to conflict. It makes dialogue impossible.

There are great Israeli institutions, from the newspaper Haaretz to the courageous Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem to Peace Now. A summer working for them, rather than wearing an army uniform, unleashing bursts of automatic fire in the desert and singing Israeli patriotic songs, might actually help.

Chris Hedges, who graduated from Harvard Divinity School and was for nearly two decades a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, is the author of American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.

Blackwater: a private army in Iraq

source almanarTV 17/09/2007 Armed contractors employed by private US security firm Blackwater USA gained a reputation of shooting first and not bothering to ask questions later as they charged through Iraq protecting US personnel and property. The North Carolina firm, whose license was cancelled by the Iraqi government on Monday after its personnel were involved in a deadly shootout in Baghdad, has never been far from controversy in war-ravaged Iraq. Nor have its estimated 1,000 or so contractors in Iraq, who have been drawn increasingly into the war, been far from death. Established 10 years ago by Erik Prince, right-wing son of a multi-millionaire and a former Navy SEAL, the security consulting firm has grown into what US investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill describes as the "world's most powerful mercenary army." According to Scahill, Blackwater has "more than 2,300 private soldiers deployed in nine countries including the United States." Its "private soldiers" arrived in Iraq soon after the US-led invasion of March 2003, being employed by then US pro-consul Paul Bremer to provide protection for US officials. Blackwater's presence has however been a bone of contention for Iraqi officials as it has never been clear whether they are immune from prosecution. Blackwater's security consulting division holds at least 109 million dollars worth of State Department contracts in Iraq and is authorized to use deadly force, according to a Washington Post report in June. Armed contractors are deployed to protect US officials and convoys transporting reconstruction material, including vehicles, weapons and ammunition for the Iraqi army and police. But, the report said, they are becoming increasingly involved in military action, fighting militiamen, enduring attacks and taking hundreds of casualties that have been sometimes concealed. Armed contractors can make up to 20,000 dollars a month in Iraq but the risks are high. Blackwater lost four employees in Fallujah in March 2004 when a mob mutilated their bodies and hanged them from a bridge. The slaughter sparked the first major US assault on Fallujah. In April 2005, Blackwater contractors were again in the line of fire when six were killed after fighters downed a Bulgarian helicopter with a missile strike near the northern city of Tikrit. A seventh Blackwater employee was killed at the same time near Ramadi when a roadside bomb blew up near his vehicle. For Iraqis, Blackwater contractors were known for their propensity to open fire indiscriminately when they felt they were under threat. In May, according to the Washington Post, a guard working for Blackwater shot and killed an Iraqi driver near the interior ministry. The Blackwater guards said the victim drove too close to their convoy and drew fire, the report said. Also in May, a Blackwater-protected convoy was ambushed in downtown Baghdad, triggering a furious battle, in which the security contractors, US and Iraqi troops and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters opened fire in a crowded area. A similar incident occurred on Sunday, when Blackwater guards were escorting a US diplomatic convoy through the Al-Yarmukh neighborhood of west Baghdad. Witnesses and victims lying in hospital suffering gunshot wounds said the Blackwater guards had opened indiscriminate fire into the crowded streets and at cars trapped behind the convoy. When the pandemonium had died down, at least eight people were dead and 13 wounded. The incident was just one too many for the Iraqi authorities, who on Monday issued orders to revoke Blackwater's license.

Abbas announces new electoral law to exclude Hamas

02/09/2007 almanar.com Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said on Sunday that his office has published an amended electoral law that could effectively exclude Hamas from any future polls. "The new election law has been published," Abbas told reporters during a joint press conference with visiting EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. On August 15, Abbas's office said the president was mulling changing the law to require candidates in presidential and legislative elections "to respect the political program of the PLO" and to respect all previous agreements signed by the Palestinian Authority. The amended text also said all parliamentary candidates will be chosen according to party lists. Previously, half of those standing for the legislature were chosen in single constituencies. Such a requirement makes it easier for candidates from Abbas's Fatah party to run in the Gaza Strip, which has been under the control of Hamas since June.

War on Terror !

Quote:
As Marjorie Cohn, president of the National Lawyers Guild, pointed out, Bush “overlooked the 4 million Indochinese and 58,000 American soldiers who paid the ultimate price for that imperial war. And the myriad Vietnamese and Americans who continue to suffer the devastating effects of the defoliant Agent Orange the U.S. forces dropped on Vietnam.”

In fact, the U.S. “liberated” Japan by dropping two atomic bombs on it--entirely unnecessary militarily, but politically useful in sending a warning to the USSR, then looming as its main rival in the postwar world.
Unquote:

Lying about Vietnam to justify his war


Oliver Stone to film My Lai massacre
Tue, 28 Aug 2007 19:44:45

The American director Oliver Stone is slated to start the production of another movie about the US massacres during the Vietnam war.

The new movie called Pinkville will be written by Mikko Alanne, focusing on the investigation of the 1968 My Lai massacre.

Production will begin early next year with a 40 million dollar budget.

Pinkville will be Stone's fourth movie on the Vietnam war, following the Oscar winner Platoon, Heaven and Earth, and Born on the Fourth of July.


'Redacted' depicts Iraqi horrors
Sat, 01 Sep 2007 02:35:50
Source: Agencies

American film director, Brian De Palma

American film director Brian De Palma has stunned the Venice Film Festival with his traumatic new film about the horrors of the Iraq war.

Brian De Palma said he hoped seeing such images would alert Americans to the truth of what is going on in Iraq and would ultimately stop the war.

The film, Redacted, is based on the horrible real-life incident in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, in which American soldiers violated a 14-year-old schoolgirl before setting her body alight and shooting dead her parents and her five-year-old sister.

Other events shown on film include the fatal shooting of a pregnant Iraqi woman at a US military checkpoint as her brother was driving her to hospital.

The film is a response to what De Palma sees as sanitized media accounts of the war seen in the United States.

"All the images we have of our war are completely constructed - whitewashed, redacted," said De Palma adding that "one only hopes that these images will get the public incensed enough to get their congressmen to vote against the war."

De Palma casts relatively unknown actors as the army recruits and filmed on location in Jordan


US 'intellectually bankrupt' over Iraq
Sat, 01 Sep 2007 22:07:57
Source: agencies

General Sir Mike Jackson

The head of the British army during the invasion of Iraq has criticized the US post-war policy in Iraq as intellectually bankrupt.

General Sir Mike Jackson, a now retired former chief of the general staff, said the approach taken by former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was "intellectually bankrupt" and described his comment that US forces "don't do nation-building" as "nonsensical" The Daily Telegraph reported on Saturday.

Gen Jackson said Mr. Rumsfeld was "one of the most responsible for the current situation in Iraq."

Jackson was particularly critical of US President George W. Bush's decision to hand control of the post-invasion running of Iraq to the Department of Defense.

"All the planning carried out by the State Department went to waste," he noted.

Jackson further added the entire US approach to tackling global terrorism was "inadequate" because it relied too heavily on military power at the expense of nation building and diplomacy.

The remarks come as officials from both the US and UK have been blaming each other over Iraq.

General Jack Keane, a former vice-chief of staff of the US army, said there was "frustration" in Washington at Britain's role in southern Iraq as he shed light on media reports that American officials think British forces have failed there.

Will G3 stops IAEA report to UNSC

Diplomacy can resolve Iran's N-issue
Fri, 31 Aug 2007 21:43:52
Source: PressTV, agencies

Former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix

The former UN chief weapons inspector says diplomacy is the best way to resolve the standoff with Iran over its uranium enrichment program.

Iran should be provided with security guarantees that it will not be attacked, and the United States should normalize relations with Iran to help resolve the current row over that country's nuclear activities, Hans Blix maintained.

The former UN official, who is currently chairman of Sweden's Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, said that the diplomatic approach as adopted by Washington toward North Korea has not been used with Iran.

"On the contrary, you have three US aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf which the Iranians may see as needing to protect themselves from in future," said Blix who was delivering a keynote address to the Second Commonwealth Red Cross and Red Crescent Conference on International Humanitarian Law in Wellington, New Zealand.

Without taking into account the peaceful objective of Iran's nuclear program, Blix said Iranians should be assured that they do not need to have nuclear weapons.


France, UK, US slam IAEA report
Thu, 30 Aug 2007 22:28:30

France, UK, and the US disapprove of recent IAEA report on Iran.

American, British, and French envoys to the IAEA Board of Governors have voiced their disapproval of improving Iran-IAEA cooperation.

A senior Iranian diplomat said that the envoys had met with IAEA Chief Mohammad ElBaradei, to object to his report and politically influence him. Chinese, German, and Russian diplomats did not attend the meeting.

The American, British, and French envoys reportedly stepped up pressures on ElBaradei as the agency nodded its agreement with Tehran to remove Iran's case from the UN Security Council's agenda.

ElBaradei's report suggested that the recent agreement between the Islamic Republic and UN nuclear watchdog was a breakthrough in Iran's nuclear case.

US is world's most armed society

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 02:29:20
Source: Reuters

US citizens own 270 million guns.

/ Press TV

There are some 270 million guns in the US, nearly 90 for every 100 citizens, this has turned the country into the world's most heavily armed society.

US citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.

About 4.5 million of the 8 million new guns manufactured worldwide each year are purchased in the United States, it said. "There is roughly one firearm for every seven people worldwide. Without the United States, though, this drops to about one firearm per 10 people."

India had the world's second-largest civilian gun arsenal, with an estimated 46 million firearms outside law enforcement and the military, though this represented just four guns per 100 people there. China, ranked third with 40 million privately held guns, had 3 firearms per 100 people.

Germany, France, Pakistan, Mexico, Brazil and Russia were next in the ranking of country's overall civilian gun arsenals.

On a per-capita basis, Yemen had the second most heavily armed citizenry behind the United States, with 61 guns per 100 people, followed by Finland with 56, Switzerland with 46, Iraq with 39 and Serbia with 38.

The report, which relied on government data, surveys and media reports to estimate the size of world arsenals, estimated there were 650 million civilian firearms worldwide, and 225 million - nearly three times fewer- held by law enforcement and military forces.

Only about 12 percent of civilian weapons in the world are thought to be registered with authorities.

Terkuburnya Kelantan Delights di Suria KLCC

Oleh Datuk Rejal Arbee

Malam tadi adalah malam terakhir restoran Kelantan Delights – satu-satunya sahaja restoran masakan Melayu yang beroperasi di Suria KLCC – menghidang makanan di situ. Mulai esok (23hb Ogos) berakhirlah riwayatnya setelah beroperasi selama 10 tahun memperkenalkan masakan Melayu, khususnya makanan Kelantan seperti nasi kerabu dan nasi dagang kepada pelancung dalam dan luar negeri di situ.

Penutupannya juga menandakan sudah tidak ada lagi restoran yang menyajikan masakan Melayu di situ. Apakah salah kalau disimpulkan bahawa pengurusan Suria KLCC tidak mahu ujud kedai yang menyediakan masakan Melayu kepada orang ramai yang berkunjung ke Menara berkembar Petronas? Ini hanya Pengurusi Eksekutif Suria KLCC dan Ketua Pegawai Eksekutifnya, seorang warga Australia bernama Brian Andrew yang boleh memberi jawapan.

Kalau ditanya tentulah mereka mengatakan bahawa tuan punyai Kelantan Delights, Sdr Juhaidi Yean Abdullah dan isteri tidak mahu membayar sewa yang dikenakan, ia itu RM44,000 sebulan, naik dari RM30,000 sebelum ini.

Juhaidi berkata masalahnya bukanlah kadar sewa yang dikenakan, tetapi sikap pengurusan yang agak bongkak seolah-olah memberikan kata dua kepadanya tanpa mahu berunding. Apakah kenaikan kadar sewa yang begitu melonjak berpatutan – naik hampir 50 peratus dalam tempoh setahun?

Pengurusan Suria KLCC juga tidak telus kerana merahsiakan kadar sewa yang dikenakan kepada premis lain yang bersebelahan. Misalnya Chakri Palace (masakan Thai), Spice of India atau Madame Kwan dan Shan Village (masakan Cina). Apakah kadar sewa yang dikenakan kepada mereka itu sama dengan yang dikenakan kepada Kelantan Delights?

Mereka menjadikan kadar sewa yang dikenakan seperti satu rahsia negara yang amat besar sekali.

Kini premis itu yang telah dipopularkan juga oleh Kelantan Delights akan diberikan kepada suatu restaurant Korea. Dengan ini berbagai masakan negeri asing boleh dinikmati di Suria KLCC tetapi jangan harapkan mendapat masakan Melayu di situ. Apakah gambaran yang hendak diberikan pengurusan Suria KLCC? Salahkah kalau disimpulkan bahawa mereka berpandangan bahawa masakan Melayu tidak layak disajikan kepada pengunjung Menara Kembar Petronas?

Apakah salah kalau diandaikan pengurusan Suria KLCC tidak langsung prihatin dengan keadaan tempatan? Dengan tamatnya riwayat Kelantan Delights di situ, makanan Melayu sudah tidak terdapat lagi diMenara Kembar Petronas. Apakah tidak aneh masakan bangsa-bangsa lain boleh dinikmati di situ tetapi masakan tempatan tidak ada?

Apakah makanan Melayu tidak setaraf makanan bangsa-bangsa lain hingga tidak lagi diberi tempat di situ? Salahkah kalau disimpulkan bahawa pengurusan Suria KLCC tidak mahu orang yang mengunjundi Menara Kembar Petronas menikmati masakan Melayu?

Maka tidak menghairankan pengacara TV Aziz Desa yang turut hadir dalam jamuan terakhir di situ malam tadi antara lain memberi rangkap pantun ini:

Buai laju-laju
Sampai KLCC
Apa nasib Melayu
Merempat di negeri sendiri.

Antara mereka yang hadir adalah beberapa orang rakan wartawan dan personality TV seperti Ras Adiba. Kelantan Delights juga meraikan seramai 40 orang warga tua dari Rumah Seri Kenangan Ceras.

Apakah yang boleh disimpulkan dari perkembangan terakhir ini yang dihadapi pekedai-pekedai Melayu di situ? Nampaknya satu demi satu kedai Melayu terpaksa ditutup.

Maka dengan itu kini tiggal hanya 10 buah kedai yang diusahakan Melayu daripada 325 buah kedai. Apakah ini tidak menimbulkan keresahan dikalangan orang Melayu? Apakah pihak berkuasa tidak langsung prihatin dengan perkembangan ini dan sikap pengurusan Suria KLCC?

Kabarnya keadaan di Alamanda Putrajaya yang juga diuruskan Suria KLCC tidak banyak berbeza dengan apa yang sedang berlaku di Menara Kembar Petronas. Tidak menghairankan kerana Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif Alamanda adalah isteri kepada Brian Andrew iaitu Lisa Words. Apakah tidak aneh isteri boleh dilantik sebagai boss anak syarikat di mana suaminya menjadi ketua?

Perkembangan ini sebenarnya memberi implikasi besar terhadap kedudukan perniagaan Melayu di kompleks beli belah yang bertaraf antarabangsa. Orang Melayu sendiri tidak mengharapkan pembelaan dari komplek yang dikuasai bukan Melayu seperti Mega Mall atau One Utama. Tetapi kompleks membeli belah yang dikuasai sebuah Syarikat Kaitan Kerajaan (GLC) tentunya perlu ada sedikit pertimbangan untuk menggalakan peniaga Melayu.

Apa yang berlaku kepada Kelantan Delights juga menunjukan sikap kurang prihatin oleh kerajaan dan institusi yang kononnya diujudkan untuk memelihara dan membantu peniaga Melayu. Jadi dimanakah usaha mahu menggalak orang Melayu berniaga? Melayu yang benar-benar berkebolehan bukannya yang Ali Baba dimana rakan kongsi Melayu hanyalah sebagai ‘sleeping partner’ saja.

Apa khabar Kementerian Pembangunan Usahawan dan Koperasi? Apa khabar MARA? Tidak adakah satu pun Jabatan atau Ajensi Kerajaan prihatin terhadap apa yang sedang melanda peniaga Melayu di Suria KLCC?

Khabarnya Ketua Setiausaha Kementeri Pembangunan Usahawan dan Koperasi ada menemui Pengurusan Suria KLCC. Tetapi tidak pula diketahui apa hasilnya. Yang diketahui Kelantan Delights sudah tutup kedai di sana. Nampaknya tidak ada kesudahan.

Malah perjumpaan antara Ketua Setiausaha Kementerian dengan pengurusan Suria KLCC yang tidak membawa kepada pembelaan peniaga Melayu akan memberikan hasil yang lebih buruk kerana tidak apa pun yang berlaku. Pengurusan Suria KLCC tentunya akan bersikap lebih bongkak dan sombong seolah-olah mereka kebal dan boleh melakukan apa saja tanpa siapa pun boleh menegur.

Malam tadi saya juga terpegum melihat empat pasagan orang putih yang hendak memasuki restoran. Salah seorang pekerja Kelantan Delights yang berada dipintu memberitahu bahawa restoran tidak dibuka untuk pelanggan malam itu. Tetapi Sdr Juhaidi yang kebetulan berada berhampiran sedarkan apa yang berlaku dan terus mencelah dan memperlawa mereka masuk menikmati hidangan secara gratis.

Salah seorang daripada mereka memberi tahu bahawa mereka datang dari Rusia dan mahu menikmati Nasi Kerabu sambil menunjukkan buku pelancungan dalam bahasa Rusia dengan nama Kelantan Delights di tandakan. Juhaidi terus gugup bahawa restorannya dimasukkan dalam buku pelancungan Rusia. Beliau memberitahu mereka bahawa Nasi Kerabu tidak disajikan malam itu tetapi telah memberikan mereka hidangan nasi dagang serta hidangan lain.

Seorang daripada pelancung Rusia itu yang perkenalkan dirinya sebagai seorang pegawai Kerajaan Tempatan Moscow telah memperlawa Juhaidi membuka Kelantan Delights di ibu negara Rusia itu. Nampaknya orang asing lebih menyokong Kelantan Delights daripada Suria KLCC.

Juhaidi memberitahu saya bahawa restorannya itu sememangnya mendapat tempat dalam beberapa buku pelancungan asing selain dari dalam bahasa Inggeris juga buku pelancungan dalam bahasa Jepun dan Arab.

Untuk mengakhirkan cerita malam tadi bukanlah bermakna Kelantan Delights akan terus terkubur; hanya di Menara Kembar Petronas. Dua bulan lagi ia akan muncul semula kali ini di Sentral, tepatnya di Sooka Sentral bersebelahan pusat pengangkutan Sentral dan Hilton Kuala Lumpur.

Juhaidi memberitahu bahawa Pengurusan MRCB yang lebih prihatin kepada peniaga Melayu telah mempelawanya membuka kedainya di bangunan yang baru selesai di bina itu. Nampaknya ‘Suria KLCC’s loss is a gain for MRCB’s Sooka Sentral’. Kita berhadap Kelantan Delights akan lebih maju dan berjaya di Sooka Sentral.

Rejal Arbee
22 Ogos 2007

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