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‘Trust’ Najib!

— Sam Peh
The Malaysian Insider
Feb 07, 2012

FEB 7 — Why all this cynicism about Najib Razak’s “trust me and I can help you” statement? This is a man who can be “trusted”.

Let us examine the evidence since he became prime minister in 2009.

He can be “trusted” to keep silent when Perkasa bashes the Chinese and Indians and questions the loyalty of non-Malays.

He can be “trusted” to keep silent when supporters of Umno drag a cow head through the streets in protest against the construction of a temple in Shah Alam.

He can be “trusted” to pretend to be deaf when Umno politicians make all sorts of accusations against Christians and Christianity. (Note to PM: Not all Indians are Hindus) Continue reading “‘Trust’ Najib!”

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Najib kata, ‘gua caya lu, lu caya gua’

— Aspan Alias
The Malaysian Insider
Feb 07, 2012

7 FEB — “Lu caya gua, gua caya lu!”….. itulah maksud kata-kata Najib kepada kaum India semasa melawat Batu Caves sempena hari Thaipusam pagi tadi. Najib menyeru kaum India supaya mempercayai beliau dalam usaha memperbaiki kehidupan kaum India dan memberikan beliau sokongan dalam pilihanraya yang akan datang. “Tuan-tuan tolong saya, saya akan tolong tuan-tuan” kata Najib lantang dan jelas.

Janji seperti ini telah dibuat setiap pilihanraya tiba sejak tiga puluh tahun yang lalu. Janji ini bukan sahaja dibuat kepada kaum India tetapi semua kaum termasuk kaum Najib sendiri, iaitu kaum Melayu yang merupakan kaum terbesar di negara ini. Janji ini jugalah yang akan ditabur dalam pilihanraya yang akan datang kerana kita tahu segala janji yang dibuat pagi tadi tidak akan kemana.

Tetapi kepada siapa yang masih yakin dan percaya kepada janji itu terpulang kepada mereka. Setiap rakyat berhak untuk memilih untuk dibohongi terus-terusan atau mengelak dari pembohongan tersebut. Sebagai seorang Perdana Menteri yang mengetuai Kerajaan Persekutuan, janji yang dibuat secara peribadi itu merupakan tindakan ‘desperate’ dan kata-katanya itu tidak melambangkan beliau seorang pemimpin yang ‘magnanimous’ yang memimpin rakyat yang berbilang kaum itu.

Orang Melayu telah dijanjikan bermacam-macam setiap pilihanraya, tetapi kita lihat apa yang berlaku sekarang ini adalah terlalu jauh dari menepati janji-janji yang telah dibuat kepada mereka. Umno telah menjadikan orang Melayu hanya sebagai dahan bongkok untuk ‘kera-kera’ meniti dan digunakan untuk memberikan sokongan dalam pilihanraya sahaja. Orang Melayu dan rakyat hanya diberikan RM500 upah sebelum pilihanraya ini untuk mendapatkan kuasa dan terus menjajah pemikiran bangsanya sendiri. Continue reading “Najib kata, ‘gua caya lu, lu caya gua’”

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Warkah dari warga Felda

— Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
Feb 07, 2012

7 FEB — Ini warkah dari warga Felda yang saya turunkan secara verbatim. Tidak syak lagi, walaupun selesai penyenraian FGV kelak, isiu nya tidak akan reda. Mudah mudahan ianya akan meningkatkan kesedaran politik warga Felda yang lain. — Sakmongkol.

CUKONG BELIA FELDA JAMIN SELEPAS PENYENARAIAN BERIBU PEKERJAAN UNTUK ANAK FELDA DIWUJUDKAN? KAH KAH KAH…

Woit cukong-cukong mengaku pemimpin belia Felda! Dah buat homework belum apa yang berlaku di Felda Global Venture tentang peluang pekerjaan belia Felda akan datang selepas penyenaraian? Makin kencap kencup kempis dan terus kempis … Kah Kah Kah.

Apa bukti???? Tanya si cukong. Woitt!! Cukong-cukong tahukah apa maksud Outsourcing? Ini kata lebai Google “Outsourcing is the act of one company contracting with another company to provide services that might otherwise be performed by in-house employees. Often the tasks that are outsourced could be performed by the company itself, but in many cases there are financial advantages that come from outsourcing. Many large companies now outsource jobs such as call center services, e-mail services, and payroll. These jobs are handled by separate companies that specialize in each service, and are often located overseas.” Apa makna ini?? Maknanya anak dara Jengka melepas jadi kerani payroll … dara sunti Trolak melepas jadi receptionist … janda berhias Lok Heng tak ada can jadi sumber manusia … Kah Kah Kah. Mat-mat belia Felda lagi la melepas terus join PAS … Kah Kah Kah. Continue reading “Warkah dari warga Felda”

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Is Myanmar the new Asian tiger?

by Pepe Escobar
Al Jazeera
07 Feb 2012

Despite some reforms, Myanmar remains a hardcore military dictatorship and lacks a civil society.

Bangkok, Thailand – While the big story of 2012 in south-west Asia is the increasingly lethal US-Iran psychodrama, there’s no bigger story in south-east Asia in the Year of the Dragon than the controlled opening of Myanmar.

Everyone and his neighbour, East and West, has been trekking to Myanmar since US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit last November. It’s virtually impossible these days to book a flight or a hotel room.

Like Ashgabat in Turkmenistan and Astana in Kazakhstan a few years ago, the new capital Naypyidaw (“the abode of kings”) – built from scratch with natural gas wealth halfway between Rangoon and Mandalay – is surging as a new promised land. Continue reading “Is Myanmar the new Asian tiger?”

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Shahrizat returning to her first Cabinet meeting tomorrow after her 3-week leave triumphant or chastened?

Is the Minister for Women, Family and Community Development, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil returning to her first Cabinet meeting tomorrow after her three-week leave triumphant or chastened?

All the signs are that Shahrizat has returned from her three-week leave completely unrepentant about the RM330 million National Feedlot Centre/National Feedlot Corporation (NFC/NFCorpn) “cattle condo” scandal which had plunged the 34-month Najib premiership to the lowest point in terms of public accountability and integrity and threatened to topple Malaysia’s Transparency International Corruption (TI) Perception Index (CPI) 2012 next year to a new low in both CPI score and ranking – even lower than the deplorable 60th ranking and 4.3 score in TI CPI 2011.

Shahrizat came back from her leave even more combative and truculent, as if challenging not only her known public detractors but the unseen forces in UMNO and Barisan Nasional to a battle royale to force her to relinquish her positions in both government and party over the NFC scandal – as Cabinet Minister and Umno Wanita chief!

The Cabinet meeting tomorrow will be the national focus tomorrow, whether the Prime Minister and the Ministers dare to state the obvious – that she should extend her leave as the rationale of her three-week leave to allow the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC) to clear her of any corruption, abuse of power or conflict of interests in the “cattle condo” scandal has not yet been achieved – or to be cowed by her triumphant return, although MCA President Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek had blamed her for the “poor handling” of “cattle condo” scandal, causing the public to perceive the NFC project as “real rotten”? Continue reading “Shahrizat returning to her first Cabinet meeting tomorrow after her 3-week leave triumphant or chastened?”

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Malaysian health reform socio-economics

— David KL Quek
The Malaysian Insider
Feb 07, 2012

FEB 7 — Is the Malaysian health system really in trouble that it requires such a drastic revolutionary change? Is 1 Care for 1 Malaysia Health Reform the answer? Will this proposed radical change make our health system more efficient and effective as touted by officials?

Or, is this proposed reform too ambitious and sweeping that it could possibly lead to severe disruptions to our current health system that we are so used to?

More importantly, would this health reform plan become another government-linked corporate entity which, instead of benefiting the public, only enriches a few favoured cronies or insiders? The difference now is that this will be a humongous multibillion-ringgit exercise and the fattest cow to milk to date!

Sadly, at this juncture in time — in the name of social development, modernisation, and economic necessity even — there have been so many government-linked projects being scandalised and mired in corruption accusations and profligate leakages.

Thus, it would be foolhardy to implicitly trust the government to do the right thing despite the economic rationale or correctness, indeed despite even the most honourable intentions! We are dealing with the health choices and rights of the public, which could become severely disrupted and endangered if or when hurried reforms turn out to be another debacle of catastrophic proportions! We cannot afford a failed social experiment of this magnitude! Continue reading “Malaysian health reform socio-economics”

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Shahrizat is Najib’s millstone

Mariam Mokhtar | Feb 6, 2012
Malaysiakini

There was one serious flaw in the success story of Malaya: The emergent Malaysia bred generations of Malay politicians who, when caught with their hands in the public kitty, will do anything to hang on to power.

They continue nonchalantly because they are confident their peers will play along with the charade.

They delight in “proving their innocence” by swearing on the Quran. Some think that by seeking absolution from God, by going on umrahs, they are able to convince the god-fearing public, that the pilgrimage is a testament of their innocence.

The National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) scandal hangs like a millstone around the neck of the Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil. Continue reading “Shahrizat is Najib’s millstone”

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PEMANDU, Oh PEMANDU

— Gomen Man
The Malaysian Insider
Feb 07, 2012

FEB 7 — Sorrylah, Mr Ong Kian Ming and REFSA. You are not the first ones to find big, big holes in PEMANDU’s ETP or, as you rightly pointed out, the alphabet soup.

I salute you because you have done what most Malaysians don’t do — sit down and actually go through the stacks of jargon and consultant talk the government throws at us.

But the first people who figured out Idris Jala and his salesmen were the people at Bank Negara and the Economic Planning Unit.

Our central bankers are privately calling the ETP and EPP a wish list of projects, and rubbish any claims that it is transformational in nature. They know more than most that it will take a proper eco-system to propel Malaysia to a high-income economy. Continue reading “PEMANDU, Oh PEMANDU”

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Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #99

By M. Bakri Musa

Chapter 12: A Prescription For Malaysia

An Open Letter to the Prime Minister

[Note: There was a typo in the previous installment. The date of the letter should be May 13, 2002.]

May 13, 2002

(Cont’d) Embracing Globalization

I totally disagree with your characterization of globalization as a vehicle for Western hegemony or that it would destroy our way of life. We are more likely to maintain and indeed enhance our culture and heritage if we are successful economically. If we were to be marginalized economically, our culture and language too would suffer the same fate. If we do not climb on the globalization train now we will be left far behind. Individually, we are more likely to be tolerant and altruistic when we are prosperous and affluent than if we are poor and struggling. This applies to government as well.

Yes, globalization carries its own risks and problems. There are many shoals and reefs in the ocean of globalization. The best way to handle that is to train our citizens to be better sailors and navigators, not to remain in port. To extend the maritime metaphor, yes there will be swells and storms out there; our crew must therefore be adept at trimming the sails and battening the hatches.
Continue reading “Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #99”