ARAb StAtES diSMAyEd At WESt'S cOMPlAcENcy - Kuwait Times

SATURDAY, MAY 4, 2013
Malaysia opposition
has narrow lead
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s opposition enjoys a very
narrow lead over the long ruling National Front for the
first time in a key poll issued yesterday, two days before
an election in the Southeast Asian country. The survey
carried out by the Merdeka Center also revealed a
broad decline in support for Prime Minister Najib
Razak, whose National Front has held power since
independence from Britain in 1957.
The survey, conducted between April 28 and May 2
among 1,600 voters, showed 42 percent of respondents
wanted the opposition Peoples’ Pact of former
Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to govern the
country. It credited the prime minister’s Front with 41
percent. Seventeen percent were either unsure or
refused to answer. It was the first time Merdeka had
put such a question to voters. It was also the first time
the opposition outscored the ruling coalition in any of
its surveys, though the opposition has come out ahead
in polls conducted by other organizations.
Stocks on the local bourse fell 1.09 percent, reflecting
unease over the poll and partly offsetting gains this
week.“The fear of the outcome of the election and the
uncertainty have been around for quite some time, but
for those people who still have not sold, they have suddenly
become fearful that the (National Front) may
lose,” said Ang Kok Heng of Phillip Capital
Management Sdn Bhd.
Merdeka showed support for Najib had slipped to 61
percent from 64 percent in March. Dips were recorded
within all three main ethnic groups — 75 percent of
majority Malays backed him against 76 percent in
March, while support among minority Chinese fell to
31 percent from 37 percent and among Indians to 68
percent from 70 percent.
Ethnic Malays are the bedrock of support for the
coalition, which has been largely abandoned by ethnic
Chinese voters, more than a quarter of Malaysians.
Merdeka Center attributed the falls to the fleeting
effect of government cash handouts to low-income
groups and of increased pay and pensions for 1.4 million
civil servants.
The coalition suffered its worst electoral showing in
2008, losing its two-thirds parliamentary majority for
the first time.
Most analysts predict the National Front will win
narrowly tomorrow, but a failure to improve on the
2008 result could cost Najib his job and raise uncertainty
over policy. Despite robust economic growth of 5.6
percent last year, those polled expressed most concern
about economic conditions.
The poll found support for Najib was highest among
poorer Malaysians, reaching 75 percent among households
earning less than 1,500 ringgit ($500) a month
and lowest among households earning more than
5,000 ringgit a month, at 43 percent. — Reuters
KUALA LUMPUR: A robot from a bomb disposal
squad checks a suspicious package after it was
found with a notice “bomb” written on it at an opposition
election office in Jinjang, outskirt of Kuala
Lumpur yesterday. — AP
INTERNATIONAL
SEOUL: A South Korean police officer stands on an empty road at the customs, immigration and quarantine office
near the border village of Panmunjom, that has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of
Seoul, yesterday.—AP
Last S Korean workers
leave joint factory zone
Project falls victim to military standoff
PAJU, South Korea: South Korea yesterday
withdrew its last remaining workers
from a joint industrial zone in North Korea
at risk of permanent closure due to soaring
military tensions.
It is the first time that Seoul has pulled
out all its workers from the flagship project
since it was opened in 2004, underscoring
the severe deterioration in relations
between the two Koreas.
The Kaesong Industrial Zone-located
10 kilometres (six miles) north of the frontier-was
once a rare symbol of cross-border
cooperation, but has fallen victim to
the stand-off on the Korean Peninsula.
Seoul last week ordered all remaining
South Koreans to leave after Pyongyang
banned entry by southerners, pulled out
its own 53,000 workers and rejected the
South’s call for talks on the impasse. Most
South Koreans had left by early Tuesday,
and the last seven workers returned yesterday
after several days of talks with the
North over issues such as unpaid wages
for North Koreans, the Unification Ministry
said. Seoul sent two vehicles loaded with
$13 million in cash over the border as the
last workers returned, to make the payments
demanded by Pyongyang. Tension
has been high since the North, angered by
fresh UN sanctions sparked by its nuclear
test in February and South-US military
drills, issued a series of apocalyptic threats
of a nuclear war against Seoul and
Washington. Pyongyang has repeatedly
blamed the South for the deadlock over
the Kaesong Industrial Zone (KIZ).
“All facts go to prove that the (South
Korean) puppet forces are working hard to
turn the sacred KIZ into a theatre of confrontation
and source of a war against the
north, not a zone for reconciliation and
unity,” the North’s official KCNA news
agency said yesterday in a commentary.
“The puppet regime is getting frantic in
its moves to have the KIZ closed by withdrawing
all South side’s personnel from it,”
it added. Previously the complex had
remained largely immune to strains in
cross-border relations.
While neither side has gone so far as to
declare a permanent shutdown, experts
say the next step could be for the South to
cut electricity supplies to the site. South
Korean companies with interests at
Kaesong have expressed shock at the sudden
withdrawal.
Hong Yang-Ho, head of the Kaesong
Industrial District Management
Committee, expressed hope that the two
sides could still secure the future of the
complex. “I believe there will be further
discussion through various channels,” he
told reporters at the border in Paju after
his return, adding that the factories were
safely locked and would remain intact
despite the withdrawal. South Korea has
urged North Korea to reconnect cross-border
hotlines severed last month at the
height of tensions, officials said.— AFP
China indicts official
in sex tape scandal
BEIJING: Chinese prosecutors have filed corruption charges against a former city official
at the center of a sex tape scandal in which developers allegedly hired women to
sleep with officials then extort money or favors from them.
The official Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday that prosecutors have indicted
Lei Zhengfu, formerly Communist Party chief of a district in the southwestern
megacity of Chongqing, for accepting bribes. The report did not provide details of the
charges. Lei’s was the first, high-profile case to break in November when online video
clips of him, in the throes of passion, went viral.
Coming as China’s new leadership has vowed to crack down on rampant official
corruption, the images of his jowly, pop-eyed face became targets of derision and disgust
over government malfeasance. In January, 10 more officials were fired in relation
to the scandal. The officials, who appeared in additional sex videos, were from districtand
county-level government or party departments or state owned enterprises. The
involvement of officials from across various departments exposed the intertwining of
sex, money and politics and the often shady ties between real estate developers and
local officials. Reports say a construction company hired women to sleep with Lei and
the other officials, secretly videotaped the trysts, then used the tapes to extort construction
contracts or other deals from them. Authorities have also been investigating
the developers behind the alleged extortion scheme. Yetsreday, the People’s Daily
newspaper said on its official Twitter-like microblog that Chongqing’s prosecutors
were preparing to file charges of extortion and blackmail against the woman who had
been allegedly hired to sleep with Lei. Calls to the city’s prosecutors’ office and the
Communist Party propaganda department rang unanswered yesterday.—AP