Thesun 2008-11-14 Page08 Nube Quashes Talk Of Retrenchment

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theSun

| FRIDAY NOVEMBER 14 2008

news without borders Dewan briefs Proton cars not affected by APs PROTON cars are not affected by the issuance of Approved Permits (AP) for imported cars, Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah said in reply to a question from Datuk Zahrain Mohd Hashim (PKRBayan Baru). “According to statistics, in 2007, out of 50,000 APs issued, only 27,000 were used. This is in comparison to about 400,000 units of passenger cars in our market, comprising 36% Perodua cars, 26% of Proton and the rest completely knocked down (CKD) assembled cars like Toyota, Honda and others,” he said.

Karpal is caucus chairman THE parliamentary caucus on the integrity and independence of the judiciary was officially formed with Karpal Singh (DAP-Bukit Gelugor) picked as the chairman. After a 10-minute meeting, Karpal said the only representative from the BN was Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz. “Only Nazri was there

although he was not invited to be in the committee. I have requested that he get some of his people (BN MPs) to join the committee (although) he did not say anything (throughout the meeting),” he told reporters, adding that a meeting would be called as soon as it gets enough members from BN.

Lim queries motive for Liu’s arrest LIM Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur) questioned the motive of the police for arresting Selangor executive councillor Ronnie Liu for obstructing Subang Jaya Municipal Council officers and police personnel from raiding a suspected vice den in Puchong last year. In a press conference in Parliament lobby, Lim said the case was more than a year ago and he wanted the police to explain why action was only taken on Wednesday. “Is this part of the political revenge? Is this another malicious prosecution? We want to know when the police completed the investigation on the case. In the interest of transparency, the details should be made known.” When met later, Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said: “The case has been taken to court, let him (Liu) defend himself in court.”

NUBE quashes talk of retrenchment by Tim Leonard [email protected]

PETALING JAYA: The National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) yesterday quashed rumours that a retrenchment exercise was on the cards for a bank which has its headquarters in Singapore. NUBE president S. Sivabalan told theSun the bank’s union members had not been informed nor have they raised any concern on a downsizing exercise. “As far as NUBE is concerned, the bank will also consult us if it is planning to embark on a retrenchment exercise but, so far, we have not received any such information,” he said. He was responding to talk that this particular bank saw its Singapore headquarters posting a 13% drop in third-quarter profit as provisions or

allowances for bad loans surged. The bank was also one of the eight which had given a loan to Las Vegas Sands Corporation for the construction of Singapore’s first casino project, known as Marina Bay Sands. Las Vegas Sands, headed by Sheldon Adelson, one of the world’s richest men, has reportedly run into some financial problems. Sands plans to suspend several casino projects in Macao and Las Vegas after saying last week it was in danger of breaching lending conditions and defaulting on US$5.2 billion (RM18.8 billion) in debt. It is one of the casino companies hit hardest by the economic slowdown in the United States. On Wednesday, Singapore Trade Minister S. Iswaran told state-run Channel News Asia that the government will not bail out the

troubled casino operator if it runs out of money before finishing the multi-billion dollar casino and resort in the city-state. Among the Singapore banks lending to Marina Bay Sands are United Overseas Bank (UOB), DBS Group Holdings and OCBC Bank. Meanwhile, the bank’s spokesman in Malaysia told theSun that the Malaysian outfit was “insulated” from the developments on the casino project in Singapore and any possible effect on the bank. “Whatever is being said in the market (on the retrenchment exercise) is purely rumours and I believe there is no effect on the Malaysian banking operations,” said the spokesman. “In fact, I don’t think that they are even going to retrench anyone in Singapore, so our employees here have nothing to be afraid of.”

Karpal lodges police report against CJ KUALA LUMPUR: Lawyer and DAP chairman Karpal Singh lodged a police report yesterday against Chief Justice Tan Sri Zaki Azmi for failing to report corrupt practices in the judiciary which he had knowledge of 21 years ago.

Karpal referred to a news report in the New Straits Times on Nov 8 which quoted Zaki as saying he knew of two judges who were corrupt when he was a lawyer in 1987. Zaki, who made the revelation in a convention in Kuching, had apparently said that he

was “blacklisted” when he complained to the chief registrar about two missing files belonging to his clients. Kuala Lumpur CID chief SAC II Ku Chin Wah said police will hand over the case to the ACA for investigations.