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Kecantikan alam semula jadi tarikan utama S&#39;wak – BorneoPost <b>...</b> - Come Sarawak


Kecantikan alam semula jadi tarikan utama S&#39;wak – BorneoPost <b>...</b>

Posted: 02 Feb 2014 08:53 AM PST

by Siti Aisyah Ramli. Posted on February 3, 2014, Monday

KUCHING: Kecantikan alam semula jadi Sarawak serta kestabilan politik dan keharmonian kaum menjadi tarikan utama pelancong berkunjung ke negeri ini.

Malah, suasana yang selamat menjamin kebebasan pelancong untuk bersiar di tempat-tempat menarik yang ditawarkan di negeri ini tanpa berasa diancam.

Tinjauan Utusan Borneo di sekitar bandar raya Kuching semalam mendapati kebanyakan pelancong dari dalam dan luar negara bebas untuk berkunjung ke tempat menarik yang diinginkan.

Menurut Tom Knight, 31, dari London dia berkunjung ke sini bersama isterinya Karolina Borkowska, 27, dari Poland selepas mendengar ulasan rakan-rakan yang pernah bercuti di sini.

"Saya mengetahui sedikit sebanyak mengenai Sarawak melalui rakan-rakan yang pernah berkunjung ke sini.

"Sebelum saya dan isteri membuat keputusan untuk datang bercuti ke Sarawak, kami juga telah membuat kajian mengenai Sarawak dan keindahan alam semula jadi yang ada di sini menjadi faktor utama membuatkan kami ke mari," katanya ketika ditemui di Tebingan Kuching, semalam.

Selain bandar raya Kuching, Knight juga akan menghabiskan percutiannya dengan melawat Taman Negara Bako untuk melihat spesies-spesies hutan yang ada di sana.

Manakala bagi Paul Allard, 66, dari Jerman pula, dia dan isterinya mula terpegun dengan kecantikan panorama Sarawak ketika mengunjunginya pada 2008 dan berhasrat untuk kembali lagi ke sini pada tahun ini.

"Kami pernah melancong ke Sarawak pada 2008 yang lalu dan setelah kembali ke negara asal, kami menyimpan hasrat untuk kembali lagi ke sini pada tahun ini dan akhirnya hasrat kami telah tercapai.

"Sarawak mempunyai tarikan alam yang boleh membuatkan peneroka alam seperti kami menjadi gila kerana keindahannya begitu luas untuk dilupakan," katanya.

Pada masa sama, Paul berkata dia turut mengagumi kebersihan bandar raya ini yang disifatkan sentiasa terpelihara oleh pihak berkuasa tempatan.

Lain pula pendapat Mark Jezzel Olive, 33 dari Alaska, dia menyifatkan keramahan masyarakat berbilang kaum di sini mencantikkan lagi peribadi bandar raya Kuching sebagai destinasi tumpuan pelancong.

"Saya menyukai keramahan orang Sarawak yang tidak segan menyapa saya mahupun mengajak saya berbual.

"Ia menjadi faktor utama kedatangan saya ke sini iaitu ingin mengenali masyarakat Sarawak dengan lebih dekat," katanya.

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{latestItemTitle} Homestay <b>di kuching</b> - Come Sarawak - Blogger

Posted: 02 Feb 2014 09:10 AM PST

How Taib Family Built Huge Housing Wealth In The Name Of Kuching's Poor

This post is also available in: Iban, Malay

1/2 million ringgit price tags on CMS built homes in Bandar Samariang

1/2 million ringgit price tags on CMS built homes in Bandar Samariang

The Taib family company CMS proudly boasts of its "vast land bank" in its annual reports and has started selling off chunks for tens of millions in Kuching.

Commercial centres and grand housing estates are also being developed in two key areas, Bandar Samariang, where CMS has 5,200 acres, valued around half a billion ringgit, and of course on the Kuching Isthmus, where land is even more expensive.

But, how did CMS acquire all this property and who has benefitted?

Sarawak Report has acquired shocking information about the way Taib and his family members have profited from this land, which was forcibly taken (official term is 'alienated') from local people and state ownership.

We did it to help the poor

The story that the Chief Minister told from the start was that this was land that difficult and expensive to develop, but that his family company was kindly determined to provide housing for poor people.

Back in 2001, he even made out that CMS was doing this supposed favour in Bandar Samariang entirely "for the people's benefit" for "not much profit", because other developers didn't want to get involved in such a loss-making venture!

Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud denied yesterday that the development projects implemented in the state had benefited him personally as alleged by some quarters. Stressing that the projects were for the people's benefit, he urged them to think rationally all allegations of nepotism and cronyism which were levelled at him before making any conclusion….he cited as an example the low-cost housing project in Rampangi, Semariang of which he was accused of benefiting personally. Taib.. said the project did not bring much profit to the developer Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd due to the peat soil condition. Not many companies wanted to invest in the project because of the high cost involved to prepare the site for the project, he said. But in the interest of the people, the project had to be carried out to provide housing to the low income group, he said. "We do not want them to remain without houses and live far away from the city. That's why we continued with the project," he said.[Bernama Sunday, April 08, 2001]

Such a kind old fellow!

Chief Executive and key shareholder at the time, Taib brother Onn Mahmud

Chief Executive and key shareholder at the time, Taib brother Onn Mahmud

Interestingly no mention has ever been made again of these poor soil conditions by CMS.  This is probably, not least, because in every other country in the world, developing tropical peat soil has been banned, because of the severe environmental consequences.

To gain a sense of the value of this land handed to CMS in the guise of helping the poor, consider the recent news that the company has decided to sell on a parcel of 500 acres for over RM45million to Sentoria Group to build a theme park.

Suddenly, another developer has been found willing not only to take on the job of developing the land, but to pay big money for the plot.

However, this time of course the money has gone to CMS, not the government or the people from whom the area was 'alienated'.

At the time CMS got this land for free it was largely owned and run by Taib's brother Onn Mahmud, who shortly after passed on his shares to Taib's wife, with the remainder being largely in the hands of the Chief Minister's four children.

No nepotism at all then!

Sucking money out of pensions too

Robert Geneid, the Head of CMS Property Development and husband of Taib's sister Raziah Mahmud.

Robert Geneid, the Head of CMS Property Development and husband of Taib's sister Raziah Mahmud.

But, of course, the Taibs didn't really want to invest their own money in this mission to assist the poor with 'quality low cost housing'.

Far better to use their influence to encourage the government controlled Employee Provident Fund (EPF) to put in the money instead.

After all, this fat milk cow has been used to pour vast sums of money into endless pet projects to benefit BN politicians, meaning public employees can look forward to far lower pensions, despite being forced to pay a quarter of their salaries into the obligatory savings fund controlled by the government.

EPF therefore was dragged into a joint venture with CMS and the investment in the "low cost housing" in Bandar Samariang began.

But, in fact, low cost housing was only ever planned to form a small part of the project from the very start.  The original terms of agreement, as explained in CMS's own annual reports, made clear just 1/3 of the area was to be housing for the less well-off.

Housing for the poor?

Housing for the poor?

The rest of the huge site was to be developed as an ambitious commercial enterprise.

CMS's 1997 Annual Report was certainly not bashful about the profit-driven nature of CMS's latest housing project or the ambitions of its new Property Development Division, headed by the new husband of Taib's sister Raziah, the Lebanese Australian, Robert Geneid.

It also reveals that, thanks to Taib's ability to pull the strings, that the State Housing & Development Commission had already been tasked with buying whatever 'quality low cost housing' CMS Property produced on the site, ensuring a guaranteed profit.

1997 Annual Report

Property Development

"This is a new growth area for the Group, and CMS Properties Sdn Bhd has been set up to develop and manage the Group's vast land bank, with the long-term objective of becoming Sarawak's principal property developer and a major player throughout Malaysia and the ASEAN region. The Group's strategy is based on using the natural synergy between the infrastructure, finance and property divisions….

Bandar Baru Samariang is a joint venture with the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and will be the largest low-cost housing project ever undertaken in Sarawak, and the first housing development project undertaken by the Group. 

The 13,500 low cost houses (approximately 36 percent of the project) will be sold to the Housing & Development Commission……The remaining 64 percent of the project will comprise medium-cost homes, commercial centres and ancillary buildings, providing a total of 42,200 housing units on the vast 5,200 acre site just 15 km from Kuching. Phase 1 of the township is currently being implemented, to provide over 4,000 units of low-cost housing, as well as hundreds of other residential and commercial properties."[Ann Rpt 1997]

So, in fact, a mere 4,000 units of the token low cost housing have been included in the first phase of the project, all promoted in the beginning in a blaze of positive publicity, before CMS moved speedily to the much more lucrative "medium cost" housing, where units are currently being sold for the very fancy prices of anything up to half a million ringgit!

Bandar Samariang Phase I Plan

Phase 1 - including 4,000 low cost housing units guaranteed to be purchased by the Housing Committee

Phase 1 – including 4,000 low cost housing units guaranteed to be purchased by the Housing Committee

Of course, the fact that the state has ploughed in major infrastructure, in terms of roads and amenities into the area, has made the development potential of this project ever more lucrative.  Yet, the Chief Minister is still justifying his handing of it all to his family in the name of charity for Kuching's poor!

Presiding over his family's vast profitable land venture.

Presiding over his family's vast profitable land venture.

However, this mother of all land grabs from the Sarawak people is just the start of the story of how the Taib family set about enriching themselves from this project.

In 'Phase 2′ of our investigation we will be looking at how individual members of the Taib inner family circle, set about using the massive housing project to develop profitable businesses for themselves, with disastrous consequences for the very poor people in whose name the Bandar Samariang land grab was executed.

"The new township boasts a myriad of vibrant features such as improved road connectivity between central and South Kuching" Borneo Post

"The new township boasts a myriad of vibrant features such as improved road connectivity between central and South Kuching" Borneo Post

<b>Tempat</b> Menarik <b>Di Kuching</b> - Cahaya Purnama

Posted: 12 Jan 2014 03:24 AM PST

Assalammualaikum

Memandangkan tahun ni adalah "cuti-cuti Malaysia", Kuching juga merupakan lokasi yang terbaik untuk dikunjungi. Pelbagai tempat menarik boleh dikunjungi apabila berada di Sarawak. Antara tempat yang menarik adalah:

1) India Street Kuching – Banyak barang-barang boleh didapati dengan harga berpatutan kat sini.

DSC01581

2) Dinotrek – Lokasi ni terletak di bandar Kuching. Tak susah nak cari. Tempat nya juga best sama macam Petrosains kat KLCC. Yang ini Petrosains kat Kuching pulak :)

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3) Pusat Hidupan Liar Semenggoh – Lokasi ni tidak terlalu jauh dari bandar Kuching. Bayaran masuk pun tak mahal. Boleh tengok buaya dan orang utan kat sini secara live. Waktu yang best untuk datang kat tempat ni dalam jam 3 petang macam tu, biasanya orang utan keluar makan time gni.

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4) Fairy cave – Gua Fairy Cave terletak di daerah Bau. Ia mengambil masa 1 jam 30 minit dari bandar Kuching ke gua nie. Bergantung kepada pemandunya.. hihi.. Bagi saya, gua ni memang best. Tak rugi pun pergi. Dan yang tambah best nya, jika kita dah sampai kat tempat nie, maknanya kita dah dekat dengan Pasar Serikin. Barang-barang agak murah kat sana. :)

5) Santubong – Tempat nie sangat best. Pemandangan yang cantik. Boleh tengok gunung Santubong seperti dalam gambar kat bawah nie. Kita juga boleh rehat kat Damai ,boleh tengok laut yang sememangnya cantik. Susah nak cakap macam mana, tapi tempat ni memang terbaik.

6) Kuching Waterfront

Sebenarnya banyak lagi tempat best kat Sarawak nie, tak berkesempatan lagi nak lawat semua.. InsahAllah satu hari nanti akan datang lagi kalau ada rezeki :) Recommended place for cuti cuti Malaysia =)

Incoming search :

  cari tempat manarik ke sarawak,tempat makan best,Tempat menarik di kuching,tempat-tempat menarik di kuching