Dr M: No to Merchants of Death in IDR
By rocky’s bru
Saturday, May 17, 2008
War Profiteering Halliburton should not be allowed to operate in Malaysia
“The Perdana Global Peace Organisation (PGPO) strongly condemns the recent opening of Halliburton’s manufacturing centre in Iskandar Malaysia, Johor. The American oil and gas company which is linked to the current United States Vice President, Dick Cheney, has been raking in billions of dollars in profit from the American invasion of Iraq which has entered its fifth bloody year.
It is appalling that we have allowed this war-profiteering company to invest in Malaysia. Iskandar Malaysia Chief Executive Officer Datuk Ikmal Hijaz Hashim (see story below) has been quoted defending Haliburton and even expressed his happiness at the willingness of the company to invest in Johor.
Are we so void of our humanity that we have to allow these war criminals to come in and thrive in our economy? Do we really need the blood money of a neo conservative entity that has played a role in the murder of innocent Iraqis to fund our development?
Cheney and George Bush are oil men and war criminals who have profited tremendously from the war in Iraq. Cheney is a major stockholder in Halliburton whose stocks have increased from USD 10 before the war to around USD 46 today. The phenomenal increase in value of its stocks is due to Halliburton continuously winning no-bid contracts in Iraq amounting to almost 20 billion dollars.
As a nation that has firmly opposed the invasion and colonisation of Iraq right from the beginning, it is a painful change in direction to allow Halliburton to operate in Malaysia. As a nation that has played a lead role in the Organisation of the Islamic Conference since its conception, it is deplorable that we have opened our doors to these war criminals that have plundered and destroyed Iraq, a sovereign nation that was invaded on false pretexts.
Today, more than a million Iraqis have died in the war that has been supported by firms such as Halliburton; which have benefited from the U.S being able to control the flow of oil in West Asia.
Surely in our endeavor to progress, we can still afford to be humane and conscientious. We must be sensitive to the sufferings of our brother humans elsewhere before we agree to accept even a single cent from these murderers.
The dead in Iraq need their justice. These warmongers who made the decision to destroy Iraq must be condemned and brought to justice for their crimes against humanity. Bush and Cheney must be put on trial for the blood on their hands as well as for all the money they have made from Iraq in the past five years.
We at PGPO reiterate our fervent objection and strongly denounce the setting up of Halliburton’s 200 million ringgit manufacturing centre at Iskandar Malaysia in Johor. The Malaysian government must not allow these war profiteers to put their ill-gotten profits to operate in any way in our beloved country.
On another note, we wish to express our utter disappointment with the decision of the Dewan Rakyat to dismiss the motion by Dato’ Seri Abdul Hadi Awang to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the tragedy of Nakba.
The action of the Dewan Rakyat does not reflect the aspirations and the sentiments of the Malaysian people who share in the suffering of their Palestinian brothers and sisters. To reject this motion on the basis that it is not urgent is a negation of the very ideals that we hold sacred such as peace and the sanctity of life.
It is bad enough that countries such as the United States, Britain and Australia are celebrating Israel’s 60 years of statehood, the least we can do is for our parliamentary sitting to show empathy and solidarity with the Palestinian people. “
Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad
Chairman
Perdana Global Peace Organisation
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Blogger Tehsin Mukhtar did a posting earlier in the week on Halliburton and the Iskandar CEO’s statement:
Monday, May 5, 2008
Whose ethics are you referring to? CERTAINLY NOT MINE.
CEO: Halliburton will bring benefits to Iskandar
“If they bring in investment and create jobs, I don’t see any ethical questions on that. I am not too sure which yardstick you are using… DATUK IKMAL HIJAZ HASHIM”
“KUWAIT: The question of ethics does not a”rise in bringing Halliburton, the controversial US-based multinational, to invest in Malaysia, said Iskandar Regional Development Authority chief executive officer Datuk Ikmal Hijaz Hashim.
“Whose ethics are you referring to? Which value judgment are you using? If they bring in investment and create jobs, I don’t see any ethical questions on that. I am not too sure which yardstick you are using,??? he told local reporters here, adding that Malaysia should be open.
“Halliburton is investing in oil and gas and we have are happy to have them there.”
The American oil and gas company opened a RM200mil manufacturing centre in Iskandar Malaysia in late March.”
(Read more click here)
Whose yardstick are YOU using Datuk Ikmal? Certainly not mine. And I can bet, certainly not the majority of the peace-loving Malaysians with a conscience!!
“Halliburton is investing in oil and gas and we have are happy to have them there.”
“We” tu sapa? Certainly not me.
I, as a Malaysian citizen, want to state my opposition towards this company – still under probe by the FBI and Pentagon for various abuses, fraudulent practices and blood on its money – operating on Malaysian soil.
Want to know more about Halliburton and what it stands for? Its former CEO was VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY. One of the neocons’/War Party’s poster boys. Responsible for the worst mass murders in recent history in Iraq and Afghanistan. Read Halliburton Watch.
Here is a summary on its Iraqi Oil Infrastructure Contract and a revealing CBS 60 minutes report which exposes that:
“Even before the first shots were fired in Iraq, the Pentagon had secretly awarded Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root a two-year, no-bid contract to put out oil well fires and to handle other unspecified duties involving war damage to the country’s petroleum industry. It is worth up to $7 billion.”
The costs keep rising, and the war profiteering continues, at the expense of the American public and the world economy.
Stinks to high heaven. Looks like cronyism and no-bid contracts also exist in the so-called last bastion of democracy. We all know what kind of democracy the US preaches nowadays…by dumping Daisycutters on terrified Afghani villagers and “shocking and awing” only themselves in Iraq, while blowing even more innocents into smithereens. I think I’m gonna puke my masak lemak daging salai and petai and telur asin lunch all over my laptop. Hold on a sec, people…
Ok.
Most of us who are not blindly subscribing to the American administration’s propaganda machine, with their own brand of media manipulation via CNN et al, know that the Iraqi war was motivated by other reasons. More on that in THE WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT THE IRAQI WAR. And now the march continues, to Iran. And according to my one of favorite anti-war journalists, Justin Raimondo, here, Bush and the War Party will probably get their wish before the end of his term.
And Halliburton will have more blood money on their hands. And it will used to pay for the jobs it creates in Malaysia. Tainted blood money. Tainted with the blood of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghani civilians. How many civilians? Read the Body Counts.
And DATUK IKMAL HIJAZ HASHIM proudly declares that there are “NO ETHICAL QUESTIONS” about the fact that HALLIBURTON is investing in the ISKANDAR REGION.
BLOOD OF THE INNOCENTS HELPING TO FUEL THE MALAYSIAN ECONOMY.