Day: June 9, 2014

The Malay Mail Online
June 9, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, June 9 — Groups representing the families of the passengers and crew aboard Flight MH370 issued a letter of thanks to the governments and teams involved in the search for the missing plane, but the Malaysian government was conspicuously absent from the list.

Voice 370 and MH370 Family Association, in a joint letter addressed to Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) chief coordinator Angus Houston, said they deeply appreciated the efforts by all involved in finding the elusive aircraft.

“This incident has no such precedent through the history of aviation, and we would like to highlight the progress made toward understanding the events unfolding in the morning of March 8 and fate of the plane in the face of innumerable obstacles and complications,” the letter read.

“It is here that we would like to applaud the relentless efforts of the men and women of the search crews directly involved in the search operations for MH370 and those involved in the analysis of the flight path of the plane; this letter is a medium insufficient to convey the depth of the gratitude felt by all affected families toward your endeavours.”

The families thanked Abbott and Houston for “their gracious assumption of responsibility for the coordination of the search” in the southern Indian Ocean where the plane is believed to have ended its flight.

“Their calm and able handling of the situation has assured the families that this responsibility has been passed to capable hands,” said the letter. Continue reading “Malaysia omitted as MH370 families thank all involved in search”

Stephen Ng
Malaysiakini
Jun 6, 2014

COMMENT Some call me a propagandist. Others call me an apologist.

I won’t be surprised that I am also one of those in Utusan Malaysia’s wildest dream – a member of the elite Red Bean Army, except that I do not know how many millions of ringgit I am paid by the DAP for my work. Not even a plate of char koay teow for all you know!

When I wrote my two sen worth of an article about the Teluk Intan by-election, another fallen angel currently living in the comfort of the West, and an armchair critic, even called me a ‘party spin doctor’ by merely assuming that I am with the DAP. Ask the DAP if I am even on their membership roll!

I do not need to envy Anwar Ibrahim now, because even for all the efforts that I put in as an individual to fight against the ‘fitnah’ crafters in this country, I have even earned myself the label of being a ‘racist’.

For someone who always says, “Race is only skin deep”, I wonder why some people can even call me a racist. Continue reading “Propagandist I am not!”

Review of Syed Husin Ali’s Memoirs of a Political Struggle.
by M. Bakri Musa

Syed Husin Ali: Memoirs of a Political Struggle. Strategic Information and Research Development Center, Petaling Jaya, 2013. 273 pp.

The deserved universal condemnation and merciless ridicule of the Malaysian authorities’ bungling of the MH370 tragedy did not arise in a vacuum. From leaders’ refusing to entertain questions at their press briefings to radar operators ignoring intruding beeps on their screens, this unconcealed contempt for the public, and the accompanying lackadaisical attitude, is the norm.

Our leaders may have had First World education, alas their mentality remains stubbornly stuck in Third World mode. Their bebalism and tidak apaism make the Jamaican “It’s not my job, mon!” a valid excuse by contrast.

To readers of on-line news portals, I am not stating anything new here; likewise to ordinary citizens who have had to deal with governmental agencies. However, when these general inadequacies and gross incompetence in their infinite manifestations are put in print as in books, there is satisfaction, at least to their authors, that they are being documented for posterity. Continue reading “Malaysian Leaders’ First World Education, Third World Mentality”

by Eileen Ng
The Malaysian Insider
9 June 2014

Malaysia risks seeing its economy contract and losing its global market share in key export sectors if it fails to tackle its high levels of public and rising external debts, a United Kingdom-based economist has warned.

Sarah Fowler from Oxford Economics said while the nation’s shrinking current account surplus was not a major concern as it was expected to stay in excess in the next few years, there are worries over Malaysia’s capital account due to rising external debt, which has shot up close to 40% of its gross domestic product (GDP) in recent years.

The country’s public debt-to-GDP ratio has been hovering at an all-time high of more than 50% since 2010 because of large fiscal deficits incurred when an aggressive stimulus package was launched to bolster the country’s economy during the global financial crisis.

“Addressing the concerns would enable Malaysia to achieve a higher growth path, reaching a higher per capita income sooner. We expect the economy to grow by just more than 4% over the next five years but if the concerns were addressed growth could exceed 4.5%,” she told The Malaysian Insider in an email.

Fowler, who produced a report on “Why Malaysia is now a more risky prospect than Indonesia” which was highlighted by global financial news site Bloomberg’s columnist William Pasek last week, used 17 indicators to develop a scorecard to assess emerging market vulnerability to external economic and financial shocks. Continue reading “Rising debts will rob Malaysia of its competitive edge, warns economist”