It’s been quite eventful

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MANY events which made headline news took place in Johor in 2011 involving issues related not only to the state’s politics, economic, crime and social fields but to some extend the country. ZAZALI MUSA examines the events that affected most Johoreans throughout the year.

JOHOR welcomed 2011 with the Tenang by-election – the 14th to be held in the country since the 2008 general election.

The by-election was held following the death of Barsian Nasional’s assemblyman Datuk Sulaiman Taha on Dec 17, 2010.

Royal send-off: Sultan Ibrahim Ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar waving to the crowds at the Tanjung Pagar Railway Station in Singapore.

It saw a straight fight between Barisan candidate Mohd Azahar Ibrahim and PAS’ Normala Sudirman.

Azahar polled 6,699 votes to defeat Normala who received 2,992 votes — there were 142 spoilt votes.

For the Chinese, it was the wettest Lunar New Year they would remember and many of them were busy cleaning their houses from mud instead sprucing their abodes to welcome the Year of the Rabbit on February 3 and 4.

Also on Feb 3, former Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Ajib Ahmad died at 3.20pm in Kuala Lumpur at the age of 64 after suffering a heart attack.

Born in Segamat on September 13, 1947, he graduated with a BA Hons in Economics from University Malaya in 1971.

Ajib served as Political Secretary to former Deputy Prime Minister Tun Musa Hitam from 1975 to 1982 and in 1982, he replaced Tan Sri Othman Saat as Johor Mentri Besar and stayed in the office until 1986.

Johor’s tourism sector got a shot in the arm when Community airline, Firefly picked Senai Airport as its southern hub in March 26, to serve air passenger flying out of Johor Baru to destinations in the region and vice-versa.

The Johor Baru-Kuching sector started on May 19, and the Johor Baru-Kota Kinabalu on June 16, with flights from Johor Baru to Surabaya and Bandung in July and to Jakarta and Bangkok in the last-quarter of 2011.

However, it was a short-lived as all Firefly services from Johor Baru to Kuching, Kota Kinabalu, Surabaya and Bandung were stopped in September leaving thousands of air passengers who had booked their flights in advance to use other airlines.

New system: Traffic congestion at the causeway from Singapore to the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) checkpoint at Sultan Iskandar Building (SIB) here in Johor Baru. The jam is allegedly due to the biometric finger print system introduced by the Immigration Department.

This was not the first time that Senai Airport faced a similar fate – low cost carrier AirAsia also stopped its direct flights from Johor Baru to Bangkok, Jakarta and Macau after five years in service.

In June, motorists and visitors entering Johor Baru from Singapore via the causeway and the Second Link experienced congestion caused by the implementation of the biometric system at the country’s entry points.

Many were fumed and furious including Malaysians working in the republic and Singa-poreans coming over to Johor Baru and blamed the Govern-ment for the problem.

However, Home Ministry secretary-general Tan Sri Mahmood Adam said it was unfair to blame the biometric system for causing the congestion at the two entry points since early June.

He said the congestion only happened at both checkpoints in Johor but not at the other 67 checkpoints nationwide where the biometric system was also installed – situation has now improved at the causeway and the Second Link.

The last day of June 2011 witnessed the end of the 79-year-old Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd’s (KTM) train service from the Tanjung Pagar station in Singapore with a royal send-off.

The train was driven for the last time out of the station by Johor Ruler Sultan Ibrahim Ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar at 11PM carrying more than 500 passengers.

November 4 marked Iskandar Malaysia fifth anniversary since its inception on November 4, 2006 and the country’s first economic corridor has achieved cumulative committed investment of RM77bil as of September 2011.

Shopaholics and brand conscious consumers were more than happy to say good bye to 2011 with the opening of the Johor Premium Outlets (JPO) on December 11 by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Located in Kulaijaya on the north of Johor Baru, JPO is the 70th Premium Outlets portfolio in the Premium Outlets portfolio, the world’s largest collection of upscale outlets centres.

JPO is the only outlet in Southeast Asia, 58 other Premium Outlets are located in the United States, one in Puerto Rico, one in Mexico, eight in Japan and two in South Korea.