tumpang sekole...?: Harga kereta naik & Lawyer Paulsen arrested for sedition...

Harga kereta akan naik enam bulan daripada sekarang jika trend ekonomi global terus menyaksikan harga minyak mentah lebih rendah dan peningkatan nilai dolar, kata Institut Automotif Malaysia.

“Di pertengahan tahun, jika harga minyak mentah terus menurun dan dolar terus meningkat, dan kita tidak lakukan apa-apa, harga (kereta) akan naik,” kata ketua pegawai eksekutif institut itu M Madani Sahari.

Beliau berkata demikian dalam sesi taklimat media Malaysia Automotive Institute Review and Insight 2014/2015 di Cyberjaya hari ini.

Beliau juga berkata cabaran ekonomi juga memberi kesan terhadap pengilang peralatan asli.- mk

Car prices may go up after 6 months, says group...

Car prices will be increased six months from now, should the global economic trend of lower crude oil prices and the appreciation of the US dollar continue, said the Malaysia Automotive Institute.

"If this situation remains as the crude oil (price) continues to reduce and the US dollar continues to appreciate, by the middle of the year - if we don't do anything - there will be (a price increase)," said its chief executive officer, M Madani Sahari.

During the ‘Malaysia Automotive Institute Review and Insight 2014/2015' media briefing session, he added that economic challenges have had an impact to the original equipment manufacturers as well.

“This six months are very important. If the situation improves, we should be able to cope with what had happened in the last six months and go back to normal,” he said.

According to Madani, the appreciation of US dollar had immediate impact on 30 percent of the materials and supplies for the automotive industry, which trades in that currency based on current foreign exchange rates.

He said that there were ongoing discussions on mitigating the immediate impact.

Meanwhile, there’s medium impact on the remaining 70 percent of the materials and supplies traded in previous US dollar exchange rates.

Thus, a committee had been set up to monitor the situation and recommend necessary action, said Madani.

Among the recommendations was to trade material and supplies in other currencies.

“I think we need to have more flexibility,” he added.

Nevertheless, Madani pointed out that lower crude oil price was benefiting the consumer as it lowered the price of petrol.

GST will have minimal effect

On how the goods and services tax (GST) will affect car prices, Madani said that it was just a perception that GST was detrimental to the total industry volume.

Instead, he said there would be price reductions and the six-percent GST will replace the 10 percent sales tax for cars.

However, he said that it would be minimal as the reduction would range between one and three percent, which translates to RM200 to RM300 per car.

While Madani encourages manufacturers to reduce car prices when GST is implemented, he also suggested customers to purchase a car now, without waiting for it.

“If you wait for GST, you can get a minimum reduction of one to two percent. But if you trade in then, the depreciation will more than one to two percent. So, why wait?” he queried. - mk

Lawyer Paulsen arrested for sedition...

Lawyer for Liberty (LFL) director Eric Paulsen was arrested for sedition at Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur today, believed to be linked to his tweet accusing the Islamic Development Department (Jakim) of promoting extremism.

He is arrested under Section 4 of the Sedition Act and taken to the Dang Wangi police station, LFL co-founder Latheefa Koya told Malaysiakini.

This was confirmed by police chief Khalid Abu Bakar in a tweet at 9.40pm today.

"We expect police to keep him overnight. We are on standby for the remand tomorrow," Latheefa said when contacted.

LFL said that about 20 police personnel arrested Paulsen.

"It is unnecessary and a waste of police resources," it said in a tweet.

This is because Paulsen had earlier agreed to co-operate with the investigation by presenting himself at Bukit Aman tomorrow, it said.

Police took Paulsen to his firm Daim & Gamany in Petaling Jaya to seize his laptop, Padang Serai MP and LFL co-founder N Surendran said.

In a 10.55pm update on Faceboook, LFL campaign coordinator Michelle Yesudas said police also seized Paulsen's mobile phone.

"Outrageous and horrific for this to happen to a human rights lawyer over a tweet.

"Clearly another red herring to confuse people between the man-made institution of Jakim and the sanctity of religion," she said.

Paulsen last Friday tweeted that Jakim is promoting extremism every Friday.

"Government needs to address that if serious about extremism," he wrote on Twitter, but he later deleted the tweet.

Jakim produces Friday prayer sermons published on the Jakim website and read out in mosques in the Federal Territories.

'Anti-Islam'

Among those who condemned the tweet include PAS Youth deputy chief Muhammad Khalil Abdul Hadi who said it was anti-Islam.

Paulsen (right) today also lodged a police report over a death threat made against him through Twitter and instant messenger application WhatsApp.

In a statement yesterday, the human rights lawyer criticised police for acting against him after pressure from "pro-Umno cybertroopers".

IGP Khalid said police will probe Paulsen for sedition after pro-Umno bloggers trained their guns at the lawyer over his tweet.

Khalid also posted a picture of DAP's Kampar MP Ko Chung Sen, claiming that the latter too will be probed for calling for Islamic civilisation studies be scrapped.

But the photograph with Ko's supposed quote was edited and the MP flayed the IGP for not following his own advice to not spread false information.- mk

Polis tangkap peguam Eric Paulsen