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Pengisytiharaan harta

— Aspan Alias
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 21, 2012

21 JAN — Sekarang isu pengisytiharan harta oleh ahli Jemaah Kabinet menjadi bahan perbincangan rakyat ramai di mana-mana. Belum pun habis dengungan saranan yang anjurkan oleh DAP serta MACC, Nazri Aziz, seorang menteri kanan kerajaan negara, dengan pantas tidak bersetuju dengan cadangan itu.

Nazri memberikan alasan yang jika dilakukan pengisytiharan harta itu ia akan merbahayakan keselamatan individu itu. Apa bahayanya saya pun tidak tahu melainkan Nazri didapati mempunyai harta yang bertimbun secara haram.

Nazri bersetuju jika pengisytiharan harta itu hanya dibuat kepada Perdana Menteri sahaja. Lain-lain perkataan Nazri hanya sanggup memberitahu PM sahaja berapa jumlah harta beliau sejak menjadi menteri ini.

Selangor telah mengambil tindakan mengisytiharkan harta ahli Exconya dua tahun lepas dan Pulau Pinang telah mengambil tindakan mengisytiharkan harta ahli majlis mesyuarat kerajaannya dan boleh dilihat melalui internet oleh semua rakyat. Contoh-contoh baik yang dilakukan oleh kerajaan Pakatan Rakyat ini patut diikuti oleh kerajaan Barisan Nasional di peringkat persekutuan dan negeri-negeri yang ditadbirnya. Continue reading “Pengisytiharaan harta”

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On changing horses midstream and the man who can walk on water

— Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 21, 2012

JAN 21 — The prime minister told the people not to change horses midstream. So we asked, don’t we change even if the horse is limping and is running on three legs? In endurance races, riders change horses in order to arrive at the destination. Malaysians should be pragmatic when it comes to deciding their future.

Midstream for Barisan Nasional and Umno is already over 50 years. Since 1955, when the first elections took place until now, from Perikatan to BN, we have had more than 50 years of BN rule. What do we have?

We have development, for sure, but are also damaged by rampant corruption, utter disregard for the rule of law, abuses of all kinds, political manipulations, deception and lies and gross mismanagement of the economy. To all that, the PM says, we don’t change? If we don’t, we shall have another 50 years of unchecked corruption, emasculation of the judiciary, thugs running the legal institutions, abuses and gross mismanagement.

At another point in his speech, the PM says we don’t know whether the opposition knows what to do if they come into power. We don’t know whether, under Pakatan Rakyatwe, we can achieve developed status by 2020 with the fabled per capita income of US$15,000.

Of course Pakatan knows what to do. In the short years since they came into power, direct investments have been highest in Pakatan led states of Penang, Selangor and Kedah. These states have achieved balanced budgets without doing arithmetic tricks.

In Penang, which is led by a non-Muslim, grants to Islamic religious institutions have reached RM30 million a year. Compare that to Negri Sembilan, which is led by a good Muslim, where the grant is only RM 12 million a year. How is that possible? Because the state coffers have been managed better in one state than in the other managed by BN and Umno. Continue reading “On changing horses midstream and the man who can walk on water”

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Dua graduan UiTM sertai DAP

Roketkini.com

IPOH, 21 JAN: Dua graduan muda jurusan undang-undang daripada UiTM yang berminat dengan politik telah memilih untuk menyertai DAP. Mereka adalah Fairuz Azhan Amirruddin dan Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud.

Fairuz Azhan, 25, merupakan seorang penulis manakala Dyana Sofya, 24, seorang peguam.

Penyertaan mereka dilihat sebagai keseinambungan populariti parti tersebut di kalangan profesional Melayu yang semakin meningkat.

Kedua-dua mereka telah diperkenalkan dalam satu sidang media di ibu pejabat DAP Perak di sini hari ini.

Dalam sidang media itu, Ketua Parlimen DAP Lim Kit Siang yang mengalu-alukan penyertaan Fairuz dan Dyana berkata, kemasukan mereka ke dalam DAP mengingatkan beliau kenangan manisnya menceburi bidang politik 46 tahun yang lalu.

Katanya beliau dapat merasakan idealisme, semangat cintakan negara dan sayangkan rakyat di kalangan golongan muda yang mahu membuat apa yang mampu bagi menambah baik negara tercinta ini.

Menurutnya DAP jelas dari dulu sampai sekarang merupakan parti untuk semua kaum, malah di Perak sahaja, DAP pernah mempunyai lima wakil rakyat Melayu. Continue reading “Dua graduan UiTM sertai DAP”

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Rosmah’s ‘shopping spree’ hits Aussie paper

Malaysiakini
Jan 21, 2012

The big spending habits of another member of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s family caught the attention of the Australian media again today – this time in Sydney.

In the ‘Private Sydney’ section of the Australian daily Sydney Morning Herald, columnist Andrew Horney called Rosmah the “first lady of shopping”, allegedly for spending A$100,000 (RM325,000) at a Sydney boutique.

Quoting Sydney designer Carl Kapp, the columnist reported that Kapp’s “biggest customer” had spent the astounding amount during a “private holiday” there “a little more than a fortnight ago”.

According to the column, Rosmah and Najib had during the holiday stayed at the A$20,000 (RM65,100) a night penthouse (right) at the newly-minted five-star Darling Hotel. Continue reading “Rosmah’s ‘shopping spree’ hits Aussie paper”

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Let Malaysian Chinese unite as one Dragon and together with other Malaysians, effect a change of power in Putrajaya in 13GE

With the closer approach of the 13th General Elections, whatever the date decided by the Prime Minister to dissolve Parliament, one common aspiration uniting Malaysians is gathering momentum – the possibility and potential for change of power at the federal level for the first time in the nation’s 54 year history.

Let Malaysian Chinese unite as one Dragon in the Year of the Dragon and, together with other Malaysians, effect a change of power in Putrajaya in the 13th General Elections to fulfill Malaysia’s potential as an united, harmonious, democratic, just, prosperous and competitive nation.

In his pre-Chinese New Year walk-about in the Federal Territory on Friday, Datuk Seri Najib Razak claimed that Malaysia is the best place in the world to live in as it provided the “best value for money”.

This is the strongest reason why Malaysia needs a change of federal power because the powers-of-the-day in UMNO and Barisan Nasional suffer from an incorrigible disease of denial complex in refusing the admit the failures of government and nation-building in the past few decades which have driven some two million of the best and brightest Malaysians to foreign lands for they could not get respect and recognition or able to hold their heads high as Malaysian citizens in their own homeland.
Continue reading “Let Malaysian Chinese unite as one Dragon and together with other Malaysians, effect a change of power in Putrajaya in 13GE”

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Anwar verdict: What Najib now faces

— Yang Razali Kassim
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 20, 2012

JAN 20 — Last July, Prime Minister Najib Razak and Indonesian Muslim leader Amien Rais had a private meeting in a third country to chat about the case of Anwar Ibrahim. Amien, who is close to Anwar, apparently had expressed brotherly concern to Najib about how the political conflict within the Malay leadership was undermining the credibility of Malaysia as a country the Muslim world looked up to.

Amien intimated whether Najib could withdraw the charge. Najib, predictably, told Amien he could not do as asked as he had no power over the judiciary. Besides, Najib said, the case had nothing to do with him.

Six months later, on January 9, the High Court stunned Malaysians by acquitting and discharging Anwar of the charge of sodomy. The surprise verdict lent support to Najib’s assertion about the independence of the judiciary. Indeed, at face value, the court’s verdict to acquit Anwar is a setback to Najib’s political position.

A free Anwar would certainly be a grave threat to the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. It had indeed been widely thought a foregone conclusion that Anwar would be found guilty and put away before the coming general election — reflecting the Malaysian public’s generally low confidence in the judiciary.

So what does the verdict mean for Malaysian politics? Continue reading “Anwar verdict: What Najib now faces”

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A totalitarian/absolutist economy

— Art Harun
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 20, 2012

JAN 20 — The establishment, nourishment, protection and subsequent embellishment by any government of entities (corporate or otherwise) with monopolistic businesses and/or preferential treatment signal the rise of what I would term as totalitarian economy.

A totalitarian economy operates and behaves in manners not unlike a totalitarian or absolutist state. By its very nature, it feeds off compulsion and force, disallows and even destroys competition and gives no option nor choice to the consumers. It is beyond scrutiny as it is not answerable to any entity, let alone the very consumers which it aims to supply.

As a result of the totalitarian and absolutist approach, this economy owes little, if at all, affinity to the concepts of fairness and justness.

It is like a black hole. It swallows everything which is in its way. It then grows bigger. And bigger.

The only difference is that, unlike the real black holes, a totalitarian economy only grows bigger within the confines of the parameters defined by its own creators. Throw this economy into unchartered territory, the real capitalist would just laugh its head off. With a mere snap of the capitalist’s finger, this totalitarian economy would be history.

That is not surprising. As a result of the constant nourishment, protection and forced embellishment of this economics absolutism/totalitarianism, such economy knows not how to compete. Its supernova-like explosive birth and subsequent growth deprives it of the ability to learn and to grow organically. This totally underdeveloped creature — underdeveloped in the sense that it is bereft of the elements which would ensure its vibrancy and survival in unchartered territories — has no defence mechanism nor the ability to adapt to changes within its surrounding, preferring to coil within the comfort of its mother’s lap. Continue reading “A totalitarian/absolutist economy”