Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has presented his paper to Parliment about the 1 Israel concept

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim today produced two documents in Parliament to back up his allegations on the links between global public relations firm Apco Worldwide, the Israeli government and 1Malaysia.



One of the documents was the agreement signed between Apco and the Malaysian government, which was witnessed by Premier Najib Razak's press secretary Tengku Sharifuddin Tengku Ahmad.


The presence of Tengku Sharifuddin, Anwar said, underlies the importance of Apco to the Najib government as normal contracts are signed by government officers.Anwar  asked why a Najib's aide be at the signing of the contract.



The other document was the deal inked between Apco and the Israeli government when Ehud Barak - who later as premier adopted the One Israel slogan - was the head of the Israeli military.


Anwar claimed that the agreement was positive proof of links between Apco and Israel.
The opposition leader also pointed out to the slew of ex-Israeli government officials which made up Apco's list of officers and consultants.


Chief among them being Doron Bergerbest-Eilon, who heads the Israeli Security Agency, Itamar Rabinovichk, who was formerly with Israeli's internal intelligence organ Shin Bet, and Shimon Stein, a former Israeli ambassador to Germany.


As for 1Malaysia, a slogan popularised by Najib, the Permatang Pauh MP alluded to links between Apco executives and the Malaysian government even before the consultancy company was hired.


He said that members of Apco staff were already working with the Najib government even before the contract was signed through the recommendation of Ethos Consultancy, a company founded by former Najib special officer Omar Mustapha.


"At the time, an Apco staff member was already stationed in the premier's office after he took power. This was way before 1Malaysia was announced,” contended Anwar."Therefore, in providing 'communications support' to the Malaysian government, Apco may have worked with Najib on 1Malaysia."


According to Anwar, top Apco executives were operating in a company called MindTeam Sdn Bhd. MindTeam's officials included Paul Stedlan, who now heads Apco Malaysia, and Margery Krause, Apco's founder and CEO.


"It is their strategy to work using associates companies to operate in different countries."
Anwar said that the documents will be given to the House speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia.
Anwar rubbish Apco's denial.The Permatang Pauh MP also rubbished Apco's denial over its involvement in coining the 1Malaysia slogan.




"It is a part of Apco's duty to protect those who employ them, which include denying their involvement."
Referring to the contract signed between Apco and its clients, Anwar stated that there is a particular emphasis on confidentiality and deniability when it comes to information of the actual scope of Apco's involvement.




"It is easy for them (the Najib administration) to ask Apco to draft a statement denying its involvement."


The former deputy prime minister also demanded Najib to explain in Parliament the Apco contract, including the cost of engaging its consultancy services.


Anwar also urged the government to immediately terminate the Apco contract and set up a royal commission to investigate the matter.


After Anwar's lengthy explanation in Parliament, deputy House speaker Ronald Kiandee said he cannot decide whether the opposition leader should be referred to the powerful privileges committee for further action to be taken.


He said that BN parliamentarians will need to table a motion if they want to refer Anwar to the committee.

Report From Mobile World Congress

 Samsung's Wave Going to be a Tsunami for other mobile phone companies 
Samsung has stepped up its smartphone war against newer competitors such as Apple by unveiling a completely new mobile phone platform, while Sony Ericsson is betting on Google's Android to pull it into the future.The companies launched a range of slick new smartphone models on the eve of the world's biggest annual gathering for the mobile phone industry, the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. With so many different mobile platforms now vying for attention and handsets looking increasingly similar, analysts believe the victor will be the one that woos the most developers and boasts the most apps.The new Samsung 'Wave' smartphone is seen during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. "We are at the most dynamic period for the mobile industry ever," said J.K. Shin, the head of Samsung's mobile business.Samsung, the No.2 mobile phone vendor behind Nokia, staged an elaborate pre-MWC event to showcase a single phone - the Wave -which it expects to begin selling in Australia by the middle of the year.The device is the first of several models to be based on Samsung's Bada platform, which it is lining up to compete with Google's Android, Apple's iPhone, Microsoft's Windows Mobile and RIM's BlackBerry platforms, among others.Like Android, Bada is an open platform, but Telsyte analyst Warren Chaisatien believes Samsung will struggle to convince software developers to build their apps for yet another platform."There are already too many platforms in my opinion and the market is very fragmented," he said."Samsung will have to do a lot of work to get developer support - competing with Apple App store, Google App store, BlackBerry App store, Nokia Ovi store and Microsoft App store."Gartner analyst Robin Simpson agreed and said Samsung was seeking to reduce its reliance on the embattled Windows Mobile platform, which is expected to get a major refresh this week. Bada also enabled Samsung to gain complete control of its handsets' hardware and software."It's Samsung trying to reduce their reliance on Microsoft because Microsoft hasn't done the kind of innovation that's going to bring sales," Simpson said.Wave uses a new touchscreen technology called Super AMOLED, which Samsung says allows for more vivid colours and a thinner device as touchscreen sensors can be placed directly on to the 3.3-inch display, rather than requiring a separate touch panel.Sony Ericsson threw its chips in with Android, debuting two devices based on the platform - the Xperia X10 mini and the Xperia X10 mini pro. Both include a 2.6-inch touchscreen, version 1.6 of Android (with access to apps on the Android Market) and a 5-megapixel camera, but the "pro" model adds a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
The company also unveiled its super-thin Vivaz Pro, which also has a QWERTY keyboard and touch screen (3.2-inch) but, unlike most phones, is also capable of shooting high-definition 720p video and includes an 8-megapixel camera.Both the Sony Ericsson and Samsung devices are fully integrated with social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, so users can see texts, tweets, wall posts and call history for each contact through a single interface.Samsung's Wave can pull a user's MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo, Hotmail and SMS/MMS messages into a single inbox, while the calendar app on the phone incorporates appointments from the user's Google, Yahoo and Facebook calendars. And unlike the iPhone, Wave supports Adobe Flash, opening the handset up to run advanced browser-based apps