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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”

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Dalam diam DAP melakukan transformasi

by Amin Iskander
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 20, 2012

20 JAN — Pada ketika Umno masih belum selesai dengan isu Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, memperbesarkan isu pemecatan Datuk Dr Hasan Ali dan memanipulasi isu pengambilan portfolio agama Islam oleh MB Selangor, dalam diam DAP memperkukuhkan partinya.

Hari ini Umno dikejutkan lagi dengan berita penyertaan Hata Wahari, bekas wartawan Utusan Malaysia dan mantan Presiden NUJ kedalam parti tersebut.

Sebelum ini dua orang blogger, Aspan Alias dan Datuk Mohd Arif Sabri — juga veteran Umno —menyertai parti yang digambarkan oleh Utusan Malaysia sebagai “chauvinis Cina”.

Ironinya, Hata Wahari memilih untuk menyertai DAP walaupun majikan lamanya, Utusan Malaysia paling kuat menghentam parti yang menguasai Pulau Pinang itu.

Apakah yang bakal dikatakan oleh lidah pengarang Utusan Malaysia untuk menjawab penyertaan Hata Wahari ke dalam DAP?

Apatah lagi pada ketika Setiausaha Agung DAP, Lim Guan Eng yang baru sahaja memenangi saman fitnah terhadap Utusan Malaysia. Utusan Malaysia di-ibarat “sudahlah jatuh ditimpa tangga pula”.

Dikala ramai yang menyangka Hata Wahari akan menyertai PKR, mantan Presiden NUJ itu mengejutkan ramai pihak. Hata mungkin nampak perubahan besar yang telah berlaku dalam “mindset” DAP. Continue reading “Dalam diam DAP melakukan transformasi”

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Let Muhyiddin reveal his true colours, whether he is an extremist, a moderate or an extremist camouflaging as a moderate?

By inviting Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muyhiddin Yassin to officiate the closing ceremony, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has destroyed whatever credibility he might have salvaged by hosting the International Conference on Global Movement of Moderates.

As a result, it is legitimately asked whether the so-called International Conference on Global Movement on Moderates is actually a camouflage by extremists to try to gloss over their “extremism”, whether directly and through aid, abet and condonation of voices of hate, unreason and all forms of extremism, whether ethnic or religious in recent times.

Najib had already raised grave questions about the bona fides in hosting the International Conference on Global Movement on Moderates when he refused to clean his own slate of “extremism” not only of the past, but even those committed in his 33 months as Prime Minister – as in refusing to retract his extremist speech at the 2010 UMNO General Assembly threatening “crushed bodies, lives lost” to defend UMNO from losing power in the 13th General Election or in allowing or condoning Utusan Malaysia, the official newspaper of UMNO, becoming the chief protagonist of the voices of extremism, whether unreason, hate, enmity, lies and incitement causing the worst polarisation of Malaysia in both racial and religious terms in the nation’s history.
Continue reading “Let Muhyiddin reveal his true colours, whether he is an extremist, a moderate or an extremist camouflaging as a moderate?”

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A Critique of the ETP (Part 1) – Let’s evaluate PEMANDU on its DEEDS

By Dr. Ong Kian Ming BSc (LSE), MPhil (Cantab), PhD (Duke)
Teh Chi-Chang, CFA, BSc (Warwick), MBA (Cantab)
Refsa | 19 January 2012

The Economic Transformation Programme is ambitious indeed. The ETP promises to double gross national income (GNI) per capita to RM48,000 by 2020 from RM23,700 in 2009. An average 6% per year real income growth over 10 years and 12.8% per year private investment growth over 5 years is required to achieve this. Ultimately, RM1.4 trillion of investments in 131 Entry Point Projects (EPPs) within 12 National Key Economic Areas (NKEAs) will create 3.3 million new jobs.

Predictably, there are critics. Any plan as bold as this is bound to attract critics. But the attacks so far have mainly been against specific projects, such as the MRT and 1 Malaysia email; carping about the slick façade and expensive costs at PEMANDU – the Performance Management and Delivery Unit, prime minister’s department – the government agency that created and is now steering the ETP; or questioning the viability of its lofty targets.

We will evaluate PEMANDU on its DEEDS. In this series, we shall evaluate PEMANDU and the ETP on its own terms by looking at the goals and plans outlined in the ETP Roadmap document. So, for example, rather than questioning its ambitious targets, we shall analyse how well it is measuring up to those aspirations. Doing so facilitates constructive debate as it uses the same framework which PEMANDU has chosen to work within.
Continue reading “A Critique of the ETP (Part 1) – Let’s evaluate PEMANDU on its DEEDS”

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Can Umno Change or Cows Fly?

By Kee Thuan Chye

UMNO is beyond redemption. At its general assembly in December, the message it sent out was suspicion of others and hatred for them, and a desperate desire to win the next general election.

Its president, Najib Razak, once again proved what many of us have long suspected – that he is a dissembler. He exposed the ultimate lie behind his 1Malaysia slogan by saying things that would divide the races rather than bring them together. He set the trend for delegates at the assembly to harp on the threats to Umno from other races. It was disgraceful coming from the prime minister of the country. It was supremely irresponsible.

Worse, two days after the assembly ended, he appealed to the right-wing NGO Pertubuhan Kebajikan dan Dakwah Islamiah Malaysia (Pekida) for support. This has to be the final nail in the 1Malaysia coffin.

To cap it all, Umno showed its partiality to cronyism by defending Wanita leader Shahrizat Abdul Jalil over the scandal surrounding her family’s business, the National Feedlot Corporation. One or two colleagues called for her to step down, but the overwhelming majority stood by her and castigated the Opposition for exposing the scandal.

This begs the question: Can Umno change? As the major party in the Barisan Nasional (BN) government, can it truly stand up for other races as well, and work for their well-being? Can it stay clear of corrupt practices? Can it stop dishing out favours and projects to party leaders and their cronies? Can it save Malaysia from financial meltdown or will it rather bleed our coffers dry? Continue reading “Can Umno Change or Cows Fly?”

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Early polls better for economy, says MIER

By Yow Hong Chieh
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 19, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 19 — It would be better for the government to hold the general election as soon as possible since lingering uncertainty over the nation’s political future will hurt the economy, the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) said today.

MIER executive director Dr Zakariah Abdul Rashid said private investors were currently holding back investments on concerns that government policies will change should the incumbent Barisan Nasional (BN) fail to hold on to power.

He said private investment was the key component to propping up the economy this year as external demand slows, and urged the government to call for early polls to dispel investors’ wait-and-see attitude.

“If you ask me as an economist, I would rather see the problem solved once and for all. The earlier they settle the political problem, the better, so we can focus on the economy.

“Right now everything is still hanging. People are postponing because of the election so if they settle it once and for all and immediately, it would be better,” he told reporters here after presenting MIER’s economic outlook for 2011 and 2012. Continue reading “Early polls better for economy, says MIER”

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Malaysia 2012 Growth to Miss Official Target, Institute Says

Bloomberg
By Chong Pooi Koon
January 19, 2012

Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) — Malaysia’s growth will probably miss the government’s forecast this year amid the faltering global economy, according to the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research.

Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy will expand 3.7 percent in 2012, the partly-government funded institute said in a statement in Kuala Lumpur today, cutting its earlier estimate of 5 percent gross domestic product expansion. This is below the 5 percent to 6 percent government forecast in its Oct. 7 budget statement.

“Economic growth will likely get bumpier in the months ahead,” the institute said in the report. “Growth in the last quarter of 2011 is expected to be much lower on account of external developments. Latest monthly economic indicators are already suggesting that.”

The World Bank said yesterday developing growth in Asia- Pacific economies will slow for a second straight year on Europe’s debt crisis and weaker global trade. Malaysia likely expanded 4.9 percent in 2011, the institute said, missing the government’s growth forecast of as much as 5.5 percent. Continue reading “Malaysia 2012 Growth to Miss Official Target, Institute Says”

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‘Anxieties engulfing BN camp’

Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz | January 19, 2012
The Malaysian Insider

Gemas, now infamous for the National Feedlot Centre and the double tracking railway project scandals, is poised to be the epicentre of another political tsunami.

COMMENT

Usually those who are pressing for an early election are those from within Umno itself and who think they will contest as candidates replacing the incumbents.

In Umno replacing incumbents is not difficult – just mobilize a few dissenting and envious voices to create the necessary ‘public’ opinion.

Elevate personal anecdotes and personal sob and frustrated stories and exploit those as generalizations.

Then package all the lies and present it to a nervous and insecure Umno division head.

Never mind if he was the Deputy Prime Minister then and now Prime Minister.

I was in Gemas for the Rapat Rakyat programme on Jan 15. Anwar Ibrahim was there.

I would estimate the crowd to have been around 10,000 people. The local guy standing next to me in the crowd confided that he had never seen such a big crowd before attending a political gathering. And he’s been staying in Gemas since the 60s.

Umno will of course trivialize this observation by saying the opposition has always attracted large crowds to their rallies. But in the end, the Barisan Nasional will win. Continue reading “‘Anxieties engulfing BN camp’”

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Salient points – 1Care

By DrNGSC

  1. The government plans to introduce a new healthcare system called 1-Care. It includes an insurance system to fund for healthcare.
     

  2. The National Healthcare Financing Authority will be in charge of 1Care – and it is likely to be turned into a GLC.
     

  3. Based on available information, every household will be made to pay up to 9.4% of gross household income for social health insurance. The payers will be the individual, the employer and the government via taxes, exact proportion still being worked out)
     

  4. There shall be no choice. Everyone has to pay. There is no opting out. We have to pay upfront. It will no longer be fee-for-service; it is fee-before- service.
     

  5. There has been no information on exactly how this payment will have to be made or how the government will collect from self-employed people.
      Continue reading “Salient points – 1Care”

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The last days of Umno are beginning

By Dr Chen Man Hin, DAP life advisor

UMNO shows no signs of genuine reforms despite claims by PM Najib that UMNO is on the reform road as shown by the verdict of freedom for Anwar over the Sodomy 2 conspiracy. If there are no signs of reforms than UMNO will collapse in time, similar to what happened to the Soviet Union which collapsed in 1990.

Like Najib, Mikail Gorbachev tried to save Russia with his policies of ‘glasnost and perestroika’ but these failed to save Soviet Russia, because he could not introduce democracy and economic restructuring as there was no policies or infrastructure to modernise Russia.

Najib is also claiming that he has great plans to reform the country, ever since he introduced his 1 Malaysia program. However, all he had to deliver are just promises. Nothing concrete he promised to cut down corruption, but every day corruption is the rule in government departments, judiciary and the police. Events have overtaken Najib and there is no way he could reverse the corruption cancer pervading the country.
Continue reading “The last days of Umno are beginning”

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Najib should heed his own call “to make voice of moderation of louder” by declaring transformation of Utusan Malaysia into the Voice of Moderation

“Najib: Make voice of moderation louder” – this is yesterday’s front-page headline of UMNO-owned New Straits Times reporting on the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak opening speech of the inaugural International Conference on Global Movement of Moderates on Tuesday.

Najib should heed his own call “to make voice of moderation louder” by declaring the transformation of the UMNO-owned Utusan Malaysia into the Voice of Reason and Moderation, ceasing henceforth to be the Voice of Enmity, Malice, Unreason and Extremism which had caused the degeneration of Najib’s 33 months as Prime Minister into the country’s most divisive, divided and polarized times both in racial and religious terms as compared to the first 33 months of the country’s first five Prime Ministers – Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein Onn, Tun Mahathir and Tun Abdullah.

If Najib is not prepared to make his “voice of moderation louder” and make a commitment to transform Utusan Malaysia from being the Voice of Extremism to become the Voice of Moderation, then Malaysians are entitled to ask what is the real purpose of the International Conference on Global Movement of Moderates which would have cost the government a fortune to host.

Najib would be guilty of not complying with his own prescription to the International Conference, i.e. that it is time for the masses to stand up and say to the extremists “with a single breath a firm and resounding no” – reducing the whole conference into an international joke and a farce! Continue reading “Najib should heed his own call “to make voice of moderation of louder” by declaring transformation of Utusan Malaysia into the Voice of Moderation”

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Why did they free Anwar?

— P. Ramakrishnan
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 18, 2012

JAN 18 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s acquittal and discharge could not have earned the judiciary any brownie points. Neither did the trial judge, Justice Datuk Zabidin Mohd Diah, come across as someone capable of blazing a new trail in proactive justice.

In fact, the court proceedings only disappointed Malaysians the way the judge denied the defence the many crucial notes they were entitled to, dismissed their right to question the prime minister and his wife by granting their application not to appear as witnesses, and refused to recuse himself as the presiding judge by dismissing Anwar’s application that he was biased in the proceedings.

He even strengthened this belief by concluding at the end of the prosecution case that Saiful was a “truthful and credible witness” without even hearing the defence side of the case. The bias was so blatant and so obvious. Continue reading “Why did they free Anwar?”

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NFC RCI should also inquire into Najib’s role as Chairman of High-Impact Committee which approved project in 2006, why MACC and PAC so tardy in their investigations and unravel other NFC-like scandals littered in government

UMNO insiders are worried that the RM300 million National Feedlot Centre (NFC) “cattle condo” scandal may cost UMNO very dearly, causing it to lose more than 30 parliamentary seats in the general elections if this scandal is not handled and resolved in a quick and satisfactory manner.

This is why I do not expect the UMNO Wanita Chairman and Minister for Women, Family and Welfare Development, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil to return to Cabinet at the end of her three-week leave (one week gone with two weeks left) on Feb. 3, 2012.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Datuk Seri Najib Razak has said that he had discussed with Shahrizat her decision to take three-weeks leave from her ministerial duties and that she was willing to be “investigated fully”.

Among the teeming questions in Malaysian minds about the RM300 million NFC “cattle condo” scandal is why it had taken Shahrizat six months to go on ministerial leave to enable full investigations into the NFC scandal to be conducted, as the Auditor-General’s 2010 report which highlighted the NFC “mess” was completed and made available to the Cabinet and all Ministries in early June last year. The Auditor-General’s 2010 Accounts Report was deliberately held back in Parliament until the last week of October. Continue reading “NFC RCI should also inquire into Najib’s role as Chairman of High-Impact Committee which approved project in 2006, why MACC and PAC so tardy in their investigations and unravel other NFC-like scandals littered in government”

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Make Gemas the epicentre of a political tsunami

— Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 16, 2012

JAN 16 — If the crowd at the Rapat Rakyat yesterday night in sleepy Gemas is an indication, Negri Sembilan will fall to the opposition at the next GE. It does not matter whether the elections are held in the next few months or later nearer a full five-year term. It will not make any difference on the outcome of the elections — Barisan Nasional will suffer massive losses and lose its mandate.

Those politically untutored, of course, will chide others who are wishing for an earlier election date. Usually those who are pressing for a quicker date are those from within Umno itself. Especially those who think they will contest as candidates replacing the incumbents.

In Umno, replacing incumbents is not difficult — just mobilise a few dissenting and envious voices to create the necessary “public” opinion. Elevate personal anecdotes and personal sob and frustrated stories and exploit those as generalizations. Then package all the lies and present it to a nervous and insecure division head. Never mind if he is the DPM then and now PM.

I would estimate the crowd yesterday to be around 10,000 people. The local guy next to me confided in me since staying in Gemas since the late 60s, this is the first time he sees this big a crowd attend a political gathering. Continue reading “Make Gemas the epicentre of a political tsunami”