Month: October 2010

Congratulations to Ipoh-born 23-year-old Tan Zhong Shan who has emerged as the top student in his final-year law examinations at Cambridge University.

In a report headlined “Malaysian is top law student at Cambridge University”, the Star today reported that Tan obtained a first-class honours in the Bachelor of Arts (Law) in June this year at Queens’ College, which is part of the university, one of England’s oldest and most prestigious.

The report said:

“He even scored the ‘Slaughter and May’ prize given by the university’s Law Faculty – an award given to those who achieve the best overall performance in the final-year law examinations.

“Other coveted prizes he bagged include The Norton Rose Prize for Commercial Law, the Clifford Chance Prize for European Union Law and the Herbert Smith Prize for Conflict of Laws.

“Queens’ College dean Dr Martin Dixon said Tan definitely stood out among the students there.
Continue reading “Tan Zhong Shan – top law student at Cambridge University is Malaysian and latest example of our costly brain-drain”

Human Capital Issues

The allocations announced in the Budget for human capital development are indeed impressive. However, the question arises if the nation will get value for its money. There can be no denial of the fact that the Malaysian educational system is in disarray.

Standards have fallen dramatically. Our universities turn out graduates who lack rudimentary skills demanded by employers thus contributing to low productivity and loss of competitiveness. Our secondary school system is in disastrous shape.

Those who are charged with educating the next generation of Malaysians to be responsible citizens are more interested in promoting race hate as recent episodes of misbehavior by teachers highlight.

The lack of an adequate reaction from the top echelons of the Government has sent a strong signal to others in the educational system to project the message of hate that BTN promotes with impunity. These despicable acts and patterns of behavior give credence to the notion that the 1Malaysia slogan is nothing more than a catchy slogan devoid of meaning or sincerity.
Continue reading “2011 Budget – Eulogy for NEM and relaunch of Mahathir economic model (Part 4 of 4)”

The Pivotal Role of the Private Sector

Much was made in the ETP presentation about reinvigorating private investment, with 92% of the total projected investment of US$444 being investment by the private sector. These expressions are repeated in the Budget Speech. However no details have been provided as to how this target is to be achieved.

The speech tantalizingly offers the suggestion that the Government will intensify the Public-Private Partnership to “… enhance private sector involvement in economic activities” To this end the Government proposes to invest RM 1 billion from the Facilitation Fund in support of several infrastructure projects.

On the one hand the formulation is built upon the notion that the private sector will be unleashed; and yet the ETP is in reality a top down creation. PEMANDU is seemingly picking “winners” and it would imply that Malaysia is about to embark upon a new form of central planning to get to highly untenable targets.
Continue reading “2011 Budget – Eulogy for NEM and relaunch of Mahathir economic model (Part 3 of 4)”

Recent Economic Performance & Prospects

In the formulation of the Budget for 2011, the Prime Minister made the claim that the Malaysian economy had recovered from the global economic recession.

In an act of self congratulation, he attributed this to the proactive measures taken by the Government through the RM 67 billion stimulus package. He however failed to acknowledge that other countries in the region had performed equally well or even exceeded Malaysian performance.

The statistics he cited refer to the short term and are soothing. However, he made no mention of the challenging issues that will determine the medium term performance of the nation’s economy.

He appears to be suffering from a bout of amnesia about the need to address the issue of subsidies and to achieve fiscal balance.
Continue reading “2011 Budget – Eulogy for NEM and relaunch of Mahathir economic model (Part 2 of 4)”

The Budget presented by the Prime Minister was a eulogy for the death of the New Economic Model. It provides a clear confirmation that this Government is incapable of living up to the rhetoric of reform that it had vigorously promoted over the past year.

The slogans and feel good speeches crafted by highly paid spin doctors have not been translated into clear action programs. The divided and weak BN Government remains mired and has now demonstrated its inability to deliver upon its promises of change.

The Budget marks the return to failed economic policies of the past. The Mahathir Economic Model built around mega projects, crony capitalists as key players, bailouts and handouts is once again alive and returns to haunt the nation.

The Budget yet again demonstrates that this administration is incorrigibly incapable of drawing lessons from the past and persists with policies that have entrapped Malaysia in the middle income trap.

The Budget for 2011 has all of the attributes of a blunt tool for distributing public funds to UMNOputras, BN cronies, and vested groups that constitute the vote bank of the Barisan.
Continue reading “2011 Budget – Eulogy for NEM and relaunch of Mahathir economic model (Part 1 of 4)”

By Azly Rahman
\Verily… the evolution of modern man can be characterized by his worship of the monolith and in building tall structures so that not only he may reach the heavens and touch the gods, but become avatars and demi-gods and enslave fellow men — as those who owns those towers of powers and monoliths of machiavellianism owns the means of writing the script for evolution — ar

And thus sprach Zarathustra,
prophet of long ago who spoke of good and evil
of this world as battleground
of the sacred and the profane
of the triumph of Man
of the triumph of Superman
Continue reading “Neo-Maya, Neo-Malaya”

Letter
By A Disappointed Civil Servant

It amuses me to note the rapacious back and forth regarding the Kursus Kenegaraan organised by the Biro Tatanegara. However, i notice that remarks defending the program have so far been based on perspectives of certain Government officials, who may or may not have been subjected to the charms of the program. As a serving Government professional of non-Bumiputera descent, I feel it is pertinent that I share my experience of this program, so that some objectivity may be achieved in understanding the isssue at hand.

It is compulsory for all Govt. servants to attend this course once during service. I attended the program in 2006, in a group of 80-odd Malays and 9 non-Malays. We were a mix of doctors, dentists, pharmacists and teachers. On the first day, we had to listen to a series of 4 lectures, all delivered by lecturers from the local MARA University campus. I vividly remember the 1st lecture on Kerakyatan, for it was delivered with such fervour by an obviously inspired lecturer. At times he seemed to go off his script and made several references to ‘other’ races being ‘pendatangs’ and forgetting their ‘place’ in society, and not being grateful for the citizenship ‘awarded’ to them, and other remarks of a similar vein.
Continue reading “A Participant’s Perspective Of Kursus Kenegaraan (BTN)”

Despite all its bombast and pyrotechnics, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 2011 budget is not a child of the New Economic Model but bears all the marks of old discredited policies which have landed Malaysia in the middle-income trap for more than a decade, setting the country towards a failed and bankrupt nation come 2019.

Former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir’s obsession with mega projects like the proposed RM5 billion 100-storey Warisan Merdeka tower is back with a vengeance.

If Najib is seriously committed to a New Economic Model, based on economic, social and government transformation, wouldn’t it be more appropriate for Malaysia to achieve targets as being ranked among the first twenty if not first ten of the least corrupt nations in the annual Transparency International Corruption Perception Index or having at least 10 universities which are ranked among the Top 100 Universities in the world?

In fact, it must be asked whether Najib is secretly trying to out-Mahathir Mahathir not only to build a tower higher than Mahathir’s Petronas Twin Towers, but which could be acclaimed as the tallest in the world – however brief the claim? Continue reading “Najib’s 2011 Budget is not a child of New Economic Model but bears all the marks of old discredited policies”

Malaysiakini
Oct 16, 10 11:41pm

Prime Minister Najib Razak is baffled that there are civil servants and government pensioners who preferred to support the opposition.

“We have to look into this … this is not right. Maybe because they were angry with a few, they decided to ditch the whole ship,” he said when launching an Umno Club for retired senior government officers at his official residence, Seri Perdana, today.

“Civil servants should know better that it is only Umno that can ensure our survival.”

He then launched a broadside against the opposition PKR. Continue reading “PM confounded by pro-opposition civil servants”

By Dr Lim Teck Ghee

There are several ways to analyze the budget. One is to take at face value what the Prime Minister has written in his blog just before his budget speech where he promised that it is “a budget by the rakyat”. By it, he explained that he had read through the more than 1,000 comments and suggestions from his readers and forwarded them to the Ministry of Finance to incorporate.

According to the PM, there were three key issues raised – employment, taxes and subsidies, and education.

In his words, “employment was the most frequently discussed with some of you calling for the implementation of a minimum wage policy”. Also, he noted that “comments from the youth requested for increased tax rebates for young families or ways to provide financial assistance in managing the rising cost of living”. As for education, the feedback on his blog related to concerns with education quality and the rising cost of education.

Now that the budget has been unveiled, it is clear that the civil servants preparing the budget have completely ignored the Prime Minister. Firstly, the implementation of the minimum wage policy has been further deferred for the umpteenth time. The only beneficiaries of wage reform appear to be security guards who deservedly see their minimum wages raised and female civil servants who will now have longer maternity leave.
Continue reading “Budget 2011: A budget for the big boys and civil servants”

By Tony Pua

Budget 2010: Government failed to keep a lid on sky-rocketing operating expenditure

The Prime Minister in his speech announced that the Government will be on track to meet the projected budget deficit of 5.6% for the fiscal year 2010 giving the appearance that the Government was able to meet its financial commitment and targets. However, the meeting of the deficit target masks the fact that the Government had in fact substantially overspent its allocated budgets, and was “saved” only by a higher than expected collection of tax revenues.

Last year when the budget for 2010 was announced, the Government promised a commitment to trim operating expenditure to reduce wastage and to generate greater value for money returns with the tax-payers’ money.

We had in fact applauded the Government’s decision to reduce operating expenditure by a significant 13.7% from RM160.2 billion in 2009 to a budgeted RM138.3 billion. The government’s operating expenditure includes salaries and pensions for the civil service, purchase of government assets, supplies and services, rentals, various subsidies, debt repayments, toll compensations and “other” expenditures. A government’s “operating expenditure” is not expected to generate high economic multiplier effects, as opposed to “development expenditure”.
Continue reading “Budget 2011 – Unable to stimulate necessary growth to meet high-income nation objective”

By Tunku Abdul Aziz
The Malaysian Insider
16th October 2010

[Tunku Aziz, one of the prime movers in setting up Transparency International Malaysia, in happier times was regarded by Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi as “one man (who) was able to harness his personal passion and deep commitment to the values of ethics and integrity, give it a larger purpose and meaning, and turn it into a force to transform society for the better.” Why then was he left out of the MACC Advisory Group? He is regarded as being too outspoken for comfort and, therefore, difficult to handle.]

Much of Malaysian television news time is taken up by ghastly scenes of unspeakable carnage on our state of the art highways. We have the highest number of fatalities of any country in the world based on car ownership per capita.

The road transport department, long known for providing a haven for some of the most corrupt civil servants in the country, must accept full responsibility for the abysmal driving standards and the shocking road manners that contribute to an unwholesome and dangerous experience for law abiding motorists whose only wish is to be left alone to complete their journey in one piece.
Continue reading “Carnage on our roads”

By Zairil Khir Johari

Stealing money from the poor. Seriously.

I have refrained from making direct comments about the mindless cacophony UMNO has been trumpeting about the alleged use of gambling-derived income for state-sponsored aid programmes for senior citizens and the poor in Penang.

In my previous post, I made a passing observation on the issue, which I felt at the time was merely the latest in a long line of ‘baseless allegations of the week’, and that the matter would soon meet its natural demise. In any case, how many times can you tell the same lie and hope to get away with it?

Quite a few times, as it turns out. One, two, three sessions have so far been organized to steal money from the poor.
Continue reading “What’s Worse Than Corruption?”

When the Dzaiddin Royal Police Commission submitted its final report in May 2005, it said that Malaysia’s reputation as a safe country was “seriously dented” by the “dramatic increase” in the incidence of crime in the past few years and that “Malaysians in general, the business sector and foreign investors grew increasingly concerned with the situation”.

The Royal Commission warned that “if the trend continues, there would be major social and economic consequences for Malaysia”.

The Royal Police Commission was referring to the “dramatic increase” in the crime index from 121,176 cases in 1997 to 156,455 cases in 2004, which registered an increase of 29 per cent in eight years.

As a result, the Royal Police Commission proposed a sustained nation-wide drive against crime “until crime levels have reached a point considered no longer alarming”, with an immediate target of “a minimum 20 per cent decrease in crimes” in all categories of crime within the first 12 months after the Report.
Continue reading “Ex-top cop Mat Zain’s Open Letter is testimony that criminal justice system had further deteriorated after 2005 Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission report”

The answer to the issue posed in the topic in tonight’s forum is quite a foregone conclusion.

Two questions answered in Parliament this week are most pertinent in throwing light on public perceptions and confidence in the police system in the country.

On the first day of Parliament on Monday on Oct. 11, in reply to my question, the Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein defended the police force against criticisms of inaction in the murder case of cosmetics millionaire Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and three others, denying that past reports lodged on the main suspects in the murder were neglected.

Hishammuddin said six police reports had been lodged against the two lawyer-brother suspects between 2005 and 2010 – five involved fraud and one involved a missing person report. Investigation into three of the six cases have been wrapped up while one of the cases is undergoing trial.
Continue reading “Every day for past 10 years, more than 3 persons missing who cannot be located or 40% of missing persons reported to police since 2000 as compared to statistics of over 99% of missing persons located by Australian Police”

By M. Bakri Musa

Chapter 5: Understanding Globalization (Cont’d)

Missing the Japanese Lesson

In truth many misread the Japanese success story. As Harvard’s Michael Porter observes in his book, The Competitive Advantage of Nations, the successful Japanese companies that now dominate global markets – the Sonys, Olympus, and Toyotas – had survived rigorous competition at home. They competed aggressively among themselves and only the most vigorous, those who have mastered the art of satisfying their customers and reducing the costs, go on to conquer the world. Meanwhile their “protected” industries – their banks and other financial institutions – are wallowing in misery, unable to compete beyond their shores.

As a result of its commitment to foreign trade, Malaysia enjoyed a boom in direct foreign investments in the 1980s and 90s. These later investors were chiefly in manufacturing, especially semiconductors. They were welcomed because, quite apart from the employment opportunities provided and foreign exchange earned, they spread the “Made in Malaysia” brand names worldwide. Malaysians also discovered that being a factory worker, even a foreign-owned one, was much more agreeable to working the land under the blistering sun. Indeed those foreign employers, yes even those companies owned by our former colonizers, were much more enlightened and generous with their benefits than native ones!
Continue reading “Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #36”

by Joseph Sipalan
Malaysiakini
13.10.2010

DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang today challenged MCA’s ministers to take a clear stand and demand for action to be taken against two headmasters charged for racism and the closure of the National Civics Bureau (BTN).

He said Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had already given them the green light to make their position known, when the latter said that MCA should be given “space” within the BN coalition when officiating at their annual general meeting last weekend.

“Here you have the prime minister saying ‘give space to MCA’, and although he said that, you don’t see any MCA minister daring to stand up to make a clear stand to demand that action must be taken against the two headmasters,” Kit Siang (right) said at a press conference in the Parliament lobby.

“Even after Umno gave space to MCA, they don’t use the space. I call on MCA ministers to demand that action be taken against the headmasters and close down the BTN, which is a poisonous anti-Malaysia organisation.” Continue reading “Get a backbone, Kit Siang tells MCA”

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
The Malaysian Insider
October 13, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 13 — The DAP demanded today that Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan be hauled up in Parliament for failing to take swift action against “racist” civil servants.

DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang said that the Chief Secretary’s silence on the matter was a mockery to the Najib administration’s reform plans.

“This is an utter mockery of the government transformation programme when two months have elapsed but nothing has been done with regards to the principals.

“Perhaps the chief secretary does not understand the meaning of people first, performance now,” said Lim.

The Chief Secretary said yesterday that the government will follow proper procedure in dealing with two school principals and a Biro Tata Negara (BTN) official for making racist remarks.

But the Chief Secretary did not say whether the three had been found guilty or whether they had already been disciplined. Continue reading “DAP wants chief secretary hauled up for inaction against ‘racist’ civil servants”

By KJ John

PM Najib Abdul Razak argued at the UN that the mainstream moderate majority must be mobilised to reflect and protect universal values of common day civility. He repeated the same call at the Asem Meetings in Brussels.

Coincidentally, Raja Petra Kamaruddin (RPK) also made the same call in London at a Friends of Pakatan event; calling for the more significant role of the Third Force in Malaysian politics.

Actually these two leaders agree on the strategy forward for their nation. The only difference is that one is the leader of the formal system working within the UN system of nation-states and the other a civil society leader working via informal networks within his own country. One is elected, the other anointed by a specific calling.

It is good that they do actually agree on something. That allows and promotes a common ground for a virtuous dialogue on how to grow a 1Malaysia into a Bangsa Malaysia.
Continue reading “Mobilising moderate Malaysia”

By Hafidz Baharom

It’s really surprising that people want to talk about halal and haram, but not just in Penang. It’s truly impressive, in Penang, how a bunch of geriatrics say that they don’t want money from any source that is considered haram.

It seems as if we are back to the same holier-than-thou mentality in politics that was visible in the 70s, where even graveyards and grieving for a dead relative were politically segregated. This was the age when Umno and PAS supporters were so passionate to the point that the arguments clearly extended after death.

There should be no paranoia when it comes to the question of halal and haram. Not in this nation where we are opening up to the rest of the world to prove that we are, in fact, truly a moderate Muslim majority nation that in all honesty respects the rest of the population as equals. That was the true Malaysian goal.

What we have now in the 1 Malaysia campaign, is a farce. A cover-up of gigantic proportions. All talk and no “meat”, per se.
Continue reading “Halal? Haram? Heck if I know…”