1. Sandstorm unleashed on 'shallow' Umno leaders
Just look at the statistics on sandmining profits accrued to the state during BN
and Pakatan Rakyat's rule and you will know who are the sand thieves. Just 2
years into PR's reign in Selangor, they had rake in profits of RM 37.2 million. A
miserable RM 12.2 million was collected by BN from 2005-07.
BN was silent on how the sand profits were utilised whilst PR
government used the profits for the benefit of the poor of Selangor.
Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:56
By Ken Vin Lek
SHAH ALAM: A Selangor state government official today lashed out at Umno leaders
for allegedly making false statements regarding illegal sand mining in the state.
In a hard-hitting press statement, Faekah Husin, the political secretary to Selangor
Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, said these UMNO leaders had ulterior motives.
“They are not interested in solving the problem of illegal sand mining but want to
appear as 'jaguh politik kampung' (village heroes),” she added.
She also took a swipe at Semanta Umno assemblyman Abdul Rahman Palil for
criticising Khalid for asking the federal government to cooperate with the state
government to tackle the problem.
“His statement clearly shows how shallow their (Umno leaders) knowledge is regarding
the laws of this country,” she said.

2. Faekah also expressed disappointment with the federal government for
disassociating itself from the illegal sand-mining issue.
“We are disappointed as this is against the concept of federalism. The federal
constitution clearly divides the responsibilities..i.e the Federal and State lists... the
federal government has to look after the safety , security and uphold the rule of law in
the states under it,” she said. The state is responsible for land and resources.
This means that the Federal government is in charge of the Police looking into the
safety and security in Selangor. For the sand mining illegal activities to be controlled
effectively, the cooperation of the Police is required. However, this is not forthcoming
especially when the local authorities want to conduct raids on illegal sandmines which
are under the control of mafia-like gangsters.
Faekah said the Pakatan Rakyat state government has managed to handle the
problem of illegal sand mining more effectively than its BN predecessor.
“The present state government has shown that sand-mining operations are done in a
systematic manner, controlling the amount of sand mined as well as ensuring that
miners obey environmental laws,” she added.
Faekah quoted the pre-tax profit figures from sand mining which showed that it has
increased close to fourfold hitting as much as RM15.3 million between January and
June 2010 compared with RM4.29 million in 2007 when BN was in power.
She said the state government has used the money for welfare projects such as Tabung
Warisan Anak Selangor, Hadiah Anak Masuk Universiti, Skim Mesra Usia Emas and
Tabung Pendidikan Anak Pekerja Ladang.
“We are confident that the people of Selangor support our initiatives because what we
are doing is much better than BN.
BN’s initiative is only good in trying to fool the people,” she added.