Day: December 1, 2014

By Cam Simpson
Bloomberg Businessweek
December 01, 2014

In 1982 an Egyptian engineer and Islamist named Muhammad abd-al-Salam Faraj wrote a religious pamphlet for his brothers. It was widely distributed that year after Faraj was convicted and executed for leading the plotters who assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Faraj titled his pamphlet The Neglected Duty. That duty was to wage jihad.

Faraj debated whether the violent struggle should primarily be local or international. He believed jihadis have a duty to overthrow secular regimes in Arab and Muslim lands before striking against “non-believers” in other countries. In his pamphlet, Faraj framed his answer to the local vs. global debate this way: “To fight an enemy who is near is more important than to fight an enemy who is far.” The phrases “near enemy” and “far enemy” are still used by jihadi groups today as they debate what paths to take.

That issue amounts to far more than an ideological debate in the corridors of U.S. intelligence agencies and their counterparts in Europe. Record numbers of jihadis have been crossing international borders to volunteer with Islamic State and other groups in the fight against “near enemies” in Syria and Iraq. Security chiefs on both sides of the Atlantic, especially in Europe, say they are consumed daily with trying to track and stop them. Already, some have allegedly been involved in plotting or carrying out attacks against the “far enemy” in the West after returning home. Continue reading “What Happens When Islamic State’s Foreign Fighters Return?”

By Koon Yew Yin
Malaysiakini
Dec 1, 2014

COMMENT Syabas Dr Mahathir Mohamad – you were undoubtedly the biggest winner at the Umno assembly meeting. Although some observers have dismissed your influence over Umno and party thinking, you knew that your finest hour was at hand. This is why, despite being sick and possibly against doctor’s orders, you made your way to the meeting.

There, surrounded by thousands of your admirers and supporters, your cup can be said to have runneth over.

You witnessed the humiliating surrender of the prime minister in his attempt to repeal the Sedition Act. How dare Najib Abdul Razak dismantle the Act which has been one of your main weapons to ensure Umno’s supremacy in the country? Is the man so ignorant of the country’s political history that he is not aware that the selective application of the Act has enabled the party to muzzle its opponents and extend the party’s shelf life?

You had repeatedly urged its retention. To see the prime minister not only put up the white flag but also announce that the Act would be further strengthened was indeed sweet satisfaction. Continue reading “Dr M is biggest winner at Umno general assembly”

Martin Feldstein
Project Syndicate
NOV 26, 2014

CAMBRIDGE – The price of oil has fallen more than 25% in the past five months, to less than $80 a barrel. If the price remains at this level, it will have important implications – some good, some bad – for many countries around the world. If it falls further, as seems likely, the geopolitical consequences on some oil-producing countries could be dramatic.

The price of oil at any time depends on market participants’ expectations about future supply and demand. The role of expectations makes the oil market very different from most others. In the market for fresh vegetables, for example, prices must balance the supply and demand for the current harvest. By contrast, oil producers and others in the industry can keep supply off the market if they think that its price will rise later, or they can put extra supply on the market if they think the price will fall.

Oil companies around the world keep supply off the market by reducing the amount of oil that they take out of the ground. Oil producers can also restrict supply by holding oil inventory in tankers at sea or in other storage facilities. Conversely, producers can put more oil on the market by increasing production or by running down their inventories. Continue reading “The Geopolitical Impact of Cheap Oil”

Mariam Mokhtar
Free Malaysia Today
December 1, 2014

Umno Baru sees the Malay mind as fertile ground for sowing the seeds of self-doubt.

COMMENT

Year in and year out, we have the predictably tense run-up to the Umno Baru General Assembly. And then, when they are gathered at PWTC, the various warlords wave their fists, insult the non-Malays, shout themselves hoarse and behave very much like little boys showing off their assets, telling one another, “Mine is bigger than yours.” After that, it is back to the status quo.

This year shows one small variation. Najib Abdul Razak is aware that his political career is nearing the end. He is attempting to prolong it by appeasing the extremists. His method is to use the Sedition Act.
The sedition clampdown has been sweeping the nation like the haze. It blankets the country and is toxic. It chokes us, reduces visibility and makes the vulnerable seriously ill. People are unable to go to work or enjoy themselves. It incapacitates us.

Since the 70s, the Malay mind has been a fertile ground for Umno Baru to sow the seeds of self-doubt. The ideas have been put into his head that he is weak, that his religion is ineffective, and that the Umno Baru brand of Islam is better. Umno Baru takes a departure from the message that the Father of Independence, Tunku Abdul Rahman, left us. The Tunku wanted Malaysia to be multiracial and secular, free from feudal bondage. Umno Baru is undoing all of his legacy.

The Malay mind is inundated, daily, with the emotional baggage of race, religion and royalty. With this continual pummelling, his confidence will eventually be eroded.

At the just-concluded assembly, Najib insulted the Malays and told them that without Umno Baru, they would be doomed. Where are the voices of the ordinary Malays to challenge him? Continue reading “Who is really guilty of insulting the Malays?”

Mark Townsend
The Observer
30 November 2014

Activists tell of the Isis elite living in relative luxury as civilians face poverty, hunger, inflation and power shortages

The beleaguered inhabitants of Raqqa, self-proclaimed capital of the Islamic State (Isis), are suffering widespread hunger, crippling inflation, chronic power shortages and poverty so acute that emergency soup kitchens have been set up.

With no journalists, local or foreign, able to operate inside Syria’s sixth-largest city, courageous local activists have given the Observer a detailed account of life under the jihadists’ totalitarian regime, a rare glimpse of everyday life in the city.

Their testimony reveals the evolution of a community brutally divided into haves and have-nots, with Isis enjoying well-resourced services including “private” hospitals and a relatively high standard of living as many residents struggle to make ends meet.

Crucifixions of Isis opponents have taken place in Raqqa’s Paradise Square, as well as frequent beheadings and lashings for offences as minor as smoking a cigarette. Abu Ibrahim Raqqawi, founder of a network of activists called Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, told the Observer: “Isis kills a lot of people, we see a lot of executions, a lot of beheadings. I have seen about five people crucified in the city. People are now calling Paradise Square Hell Square.” Continue reading “Inside the Islamic State’s capital: Red Bull-drinking jihadists, hungry civilians, crucifixions and air strikes”

Christopher Helman
Forbes
12/01/2014

Welcome back from Thanksgiving week. Apparently OPEC did something and oil prices plunged. If you were as out of touch with it all as I was last week, here’s a rundown.

As we tucked into Turkey and football last Thursday, OPEC announced no output cut, no target price and no output ceiling. Sounds like a lot of no news, but the OPEC meeting has been described in historic terms. Bloomberg’s headline declared that war had broken out: “Oil enters new era as OPEC faces off against shale; who blinks as price slides toward $70?” The accompanying article made the case that OPEC is indubitably locked in a price war against U.S. shale producers.

Oil prices plunged on the OPEC news. West Texas Intermediate crude is now at $65 a barrel. It was $107 back in June.

That Bloomberg article had my favorite quote of the week, from Leonid Fedun, a board member at Russia’s Lukoil. Fedun said that by maintaining output levels, OPEC would bring about an outright crash among U.S. shale drillers. “In 2016, when OPEC completes this objective of cleaning up the American marginal market, the oil price will start growing again,” said Fedun. “The shale boom is on a par with the dot-com boom. The strong players will remain, the weak ones will vanish.”

No surprise, Friday was a bloodbath for shares of America’s oil and gas independents. Continue reading “After A Bloodbath In Oil, What Next?”

by Ron Bousso and Ahmed Aboulenein
Reuters
London
Mon Dec 1, 2014 9:41am GMT

(Reuters) – Brent crude oil fell more than $2 a barrel to a five-year low below $68 on Monday as investors looked for a price floor after last week’s OPEC decision not to cut production.

Both U.S. crude and Brent have fallen for five straight months, oil’s longest losing streak since the 2008 financial crisis.

“The market is still very much in panic mode,” said Energy Aspects’ chief oil analyst Amrita Sen. “Once we get over the panic, Brent prices will probably stabilise at around $65-80 a barrel in the short term.”

Saudi Arabia, the most influential member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries last week blocked moves by some smaller producers to curb oil output in response to huge oversupply in world markets.

Brent hit a low of $67.53 a barrel, the lowest since October 2009, and was down $1.42 at $68.73 a barrel by 9.21 a.m. . U.S. crude fell $1.45 to $64.70 a barrel, having slipped to an intraday low of $63.72, the lowest since July 2009.

Oil lost more than 12 percent after OPEC’s decision last Thursday. Continue reading “Oil hits five-year low in longest losing streak since 2008”

Are the police waiting for the “green light” by the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi before they dare to move on the various police reports and investigate sedition and other hate crimes committed by two UMNO delegates Mohd Zaidi Mohd Said (Penang) and Mashitah Ibrahim (Kedah) at last week’s UMNO General Assemblies?

From Zahid’s “war-mongering” speech during the winding-up of the UMNO General Assembly on Saturday, he seemed to have usurped the powers of everybody and arrogated to himself the sole powers of deciding whether a person has committed sedition, whether the police, the Attorney-General or even the Judiciary – a sort of one-man arbiter combining the powers of “judge, jury and executioner” on sedition offences to the extent that he could pride himself for being described as a “hardcore” or “fundamentalist” Home Minister, bragging that 40 people had been prosecuted under the Sedition Act in 2010 and 12 this year and more to come, especially after the retention of the Sedition Act after being “fortified”.

Many Malaysians are shocked by Zahid’s “war-mongering” performance in his winding-up speech last Saturday, for no Home Minister under six Prime Ministers in the past 57 years had misbehaved like Zahid at the UMNO General Assembly last Saturday. Continue reading “Will the PM, DPM, Home Minister and all UMNO Ministers co-operate with the police in investigations into the seditious and hate speeches made by two UMNO delegates at last week’s UMNO GAs?”

The Senate begins its 12-day budget meeting today till Dec. 18.

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should take the occasion to make a Ministerial statement in Parliament on Dayak grouses about discrimination in the federal civil service.

Najib should clarify the current controversy in Sarawak revolving around a list of promotions, purportedly in the Sarawak Road Transport Department, which has sparked outrage among Dayak professionals and civil servants in the state over what they see as proof of discrimination against non-Malay Bumiputeras in the federal civil service.

The list, which has been posted on a blog and on Facebook, names eight Malay enforcement officers as “berjaya” (successful) in securing promotions from the N27 scale to N32, while three Dayak officers were listed as “simpanan”, or reserve.

To Dayaks, the list confirms what they have felt all along and what has also been noted in the just-released Malaysia Human Development Report 2013 – that discrimination exists within the Bumiputeras working in the civil service, with Malays given preference over natives. Continue reading “Call on Najib to make Ministerial statement in Senate on Dayak grouses about discrimination in the federal civil service”

– Kamal Salih, Muhammed Abdul Khalid and Lee Hwok Aun
The Malaysian Insider
29 November 2014

We refer to statements by the Governor of Bank Negara (BNM), Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, reported on various print media on November 28, 2014, on portions of the Malaysia Human Development Report (MHDR).

She disputes our finding that over 90% of Malaysians have no savings, claiming that the analysis is “partial” and “misleading”.

We thank Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz for engaging with the MHDR, and for providing this opening to reaffirm our findings. Allow us to clarify the points raised by Tan Sri Zeti. Continue reading “Zero household savings is staggering, and true”

by Anisah Shukry
The Malaysian Insider
1 December 2014

Whether poverty has declined in Malaysia depends on how it is measured. An example is Putrajaya’s reliance on absolute poverty figures, which according to a United Nations report, results in data that does not reflect reality.

The Malaysia Human Development Report 2013 commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) instead says poverty is better measured against what households earn in general, rather than by a fixed minimum level.

The report measures relative poverty, which sets the threshold at half the national median income, and finds the number of Malaysians in this category has been rising since 2007, with one in five households considered relatively poor.

Absolute poverty, on the other hand, is a measurement based on the declared poverty line. In Peninsular Malaysia, this is fixed at RM763, RM912 in Sarawak and RM1,048 in Sabah.

But the relative poverty line in 2012 was RM1,813, or half of the household median income of RM3,626.

The report, released last week and prepared by Malaysian researchers, notes that in 2007, 17.4% of Malaysians were in relative poverty, and this increased to 19.3% in 2009 and 20% in 2012.

The figures fly in the face of Putrajaya’s claim to have successfully reduced absolute poverty to 1.7% in 2012, from 49.3% in 1970. Continue reading “Putrajaya claims reduced poverty but UN report shows more poor Malaysians”

Neil Irwin
New York Times
NOV. 28, 2014

While Americans were stuffing their faces with poultry Thursday, global oil markets were in chaos. And the implications are far-reaching.

The price of oil was down more than 9.9 percent Friday afternoon after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided it would not cut back production significantly in the months ahead.

In other words, even amid a sluggish global economy and a boom in oil production in the United States, oil-producing countries from Saudi Arabia to Nigeria to Venezuela are going to keep pumping rather than pull back on output in hopes of pumping prices back up.

The latest decline pushes oil prices in the United States under $70 a barrel; the prices were more than $100 for almost all of July. And the latest OPEC move (or non-move, as it were) suggests that it isn’t going to reverse course anytime soon. Continue reading “Oil Prices Are Plunging. Here’s Who Wins and Who Loses.”

Will Hutton
The Observer
30 November 2014

With the black stuff cheaper than it has been in years, Europe’s governments must invest in their infrastructure

For the past 18 months, the world’s biggest oil producer has been the US. Saudi Arabia, eat your heart out. Courtesy of the fracking revolution, the US will maintain this new standing for the foreseeable future, according to official projections.

The world as we’ve known it for the past 50 years is being stood on its head. Which provides cause for optimism. But an international landscape increasingly dominated by nationalist firebrands, conservative zealots and policy makers in thrall to austerity economics is always apt to waste opportunities.

One first good result of this oil price shift, however, was witnessed at Opec’s meeting in Vienna last week. The once feared cartel of oil-exporting countries, with Saudi Arabia at its core, a cartel that at one time commanded more than half of global production, is now a shadow of its former self. Opec’s members were unable to agree to cut production because most are strapped for cash and had no choice but to maintain levels.

With the US needing to buy less oil on international markets and China’s growth sinking to its lowest mark for 40 years, there is now, amazingly, the prospect of an oil glut. The oil price instantly nosedived to its lowest level for four years, around $70 a barrel – down more than a third in three months. Continue reading “Falling oil prices offer the west a great chance to refashion itself. Let’s seize it”