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Why after 57 years of Umno/BN government, and the “seminal” 22 years of Mahathir premiership, Malaysia is producing minnows instead of towering personalities so much so that we have to appoint an “orang putih” to save MAS?

The suggestion by former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir that Malaysia should have a white man (orang putih) as Prime Minister is most amusing and even comical, coming from a person who had breathed fire and brimstone in the last general elections, throwing all political scruples to the winds in falsely accusing me of spearheading a Chinese grab of the political power of the Malays by contesting in the Gelang Patah parliamentary constituency, who suddenly produced a “new rabbit from his hat” – an ‘orang putih’ Prime Minister in Malaysia.

Of course, Mahathir was indulging in his classic “tongue-in-cheek” Mahathirism in objecting to the appointment of a German, Christoph Mueller as MAS chief executive officer to manage and save the revamped national airline, MAS from next year.

I agree with Mahathir that it is an indictment of Malaysia’s talents, skills, expertise and intellectual prowess that we could not find a Malaysian to save MAS.

Are Malaysians so bereft of talents, skills, experience and expertise that we have to go outside the country to source for a saviour for MAS?

The question all Malaysians must ponder is why after 57 years of Umno/BN government, and in particular what is regarded as a “seminal” 22-year Mahathir premiership, followed by the Abdullah and Najib premierships, to produce Towering Malaysians, Malaysia seems to be producing minnows instead of towering Malaysians in various fields of human endeavour whom we can export all over the world to help other countries in distress with their talents, skills, experience and expertise?

How can we save the world when we cannot even save ourselves?

Why have we been increasingly reduced to a near “basket case” as to have to appoint an “orang putih” to save our national airline? Is there not a single soul in Malaysia who could be appointed to do the job? Continue reading “Why after 57 years of Umno/BN government, and the “seminal” 22 years of Mahathir premiership, Malaysia is producing minnows instead of towering personalities so much so that we have to appoint an “orang putih” to save MAS?”

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Champion open debate and discourse on Islamic law — 25 prominent Malays

Open Letter
December 8, 2014 06:54 AM

DECEMBER 8 — We, a group of concerned citizens of Malaysia, would like to express how disturbed and deeply dismayed we are over the continuing unresolved disputes on the position and application of Islamic laws in this country. The on-going debate over these matters display a lack of clarity and understanding on the place of Islam within our constitutional democracy. Moreover, they reflect a serious breakdown of federal-state division of powers, both in the areas of civil and criminal jurisdictions.

We refer specifically to the current situation where religious bodies seem to be asserting authority beyond their jurisdiction; where issuance of various fatwa violate the Federal Constitution and breach the democratic and consultative process of shura; where the rise of supremacist NGOs accusing dissenting voices of being anti-Islam, anti-monarchy and anti-Malay has made attempts at rational discussion and conflict resolution difficult; and most importantly, where the use of the Sedition Act hangs as a constant threat to silence anyone with a contrary opinion.

These developments undermine Malaysia’s commitment to democratic principles and rule of law, breed intolerance and bigotry, and have heightened anxieties over national peace and stability.
Continue reading “Champion open debate and discourse on Islamic law — 25 prominent Malays”

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Call on all Malaysians to unite to expose The Big Lie that after 57 years of UMNO government under six Umno Prime Ministers, Malays and Islam are under threat and facing life-and-death struggle

I fully endorse what the DAP MP for Raub, Datuk Mohd Arif Abdul Aziz, said in the latest entry in his blog Sakmongkol AK47 that all right-thinking Malaysians must expose The Great Lie – that after 57 years of UMNO government under six UMNO Prime Ministers, Malays and Islam in Malaysia are under threat and facing a life-and-death struggle.

In the recent UMNO General Assembly, The Great Lie was the underlying theme of all the UMNO, UMNO Youth, Wanita and Puteri assemblies, even in various State UMNO Conventions and UMNO-sponsored conferences in the run-up to the UMNO General Assembly proper.

This was why both before and during the UMNO General Assembly, the rhetoric and politics of fear, hate and lies were in full swing, full of racist, extremist, provocative but baseless statements and warnings which do not bear up to a second of scrutiny, like “If Umno loses, Malays may never rule again”, “We have become slaves in our own land”, call for the use of “1Melayu” in replacement of “1 Malaysia” slogan and the lie of all lies that the Chinese in Kedah burnt the Quran “page by page during a prayer ritual”.

Of the six UMNO Prime Ministers, the first three have passed away – Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein.

Tonight, I want to challenge the three remaining UMNO Prime Ministers, Tun Mahathir who was the longest PM of Malaysia for 22 years from 1981 to 2003, Tun Abdullah who was the fifth Prime Minister for five years five months and Datuk Seri Najib Razak who has been Prime Minister for five years eight months to explain to all Malaysians, and in particular to the Malays, how Malays and Islam in Malaysia are under threat and facing a life-and-death struggle after 57 years of UMNO government, and specifically, after 33 years of Mahathir, Abdullah and Najib as Prime Minister?

If Mahathir, Abdullah and Najib cannot explain how after 57 years of UMNO government, and 33 years of their stewardship as Prime Minister, Malays and Islam in Malaysia are under threat and facing a life-and-death struggle, it is then the patriotic duty of all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region, to unite to expose The Big Lie which will be the greatest poison of united Malaysian nation-building. Continue reading “Call on all Malaysians to unite to expose The Big Lie that after 57 years of UMNO government under six Umno Prime Ministers, Malays and Islam are under threat and facing life-and-death struggle”

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Why didn’t Muhyiddin tell Obama to “shut up and mind his own business” when the United States President praised Malaysia at the United Nations General Assembly in September and yet bristle with rage over Biden’s tweets?

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is the highest government leader to fly into a rage at the United States Vice President Joe Biden’s tweets expressing concerns about the Sedition Act and other laws being used to stifle the opposition, as well as expressing hope that Anwar Ibrahim’s final appeal against his Sodomy II conviction would give Malaysia a chance to put things right and promote confidence in its democracy and judiciary.

Why didn’t Muhyiddin tell the United States President Barack Obama to “shut up and mind his own business” when Obama praised Malaysia at the United Nations General Assembly in September and yet bristle with rage over Biden’s tweet?

Muhyiddin should have told the United States President that Malaysia does not need his praises!

In any event, is this the position of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet?

In fact, the Umno/Barisan Nasional Cabinet Ministers and government were in seventh heaven at Obama’s praise at the UN General Assembly in September, with the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak immediately claiming at a black-tie dinner attended by Malaysian students in New York the next day that Malaysia topped the list of countries praised by the United States President for developing entrepreneurship and heading towards an advanced economy. Continue reading “Why didn’t Muhyiddin tell Obama to “shut up and mind his own business” when the United States President praised Malaysia at the United Nations General Assembly in September and yet bristle with rage over Biden’s tweets?”

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When affirmative action doesn’t work, it’s time for a new solution

Ahmad Mustapha Hassan
The Ant Daily
05/12/2014

OUTSPOKEN: The above was taken from part two of an article by Tanner Colby which discussed the affirmative action in the US to uplift the minority communities that had been marginalised, especially the African-Americans.

He did a study on this and wrote a book about the history of the colour line and the effort to erase it. He came to this final conclusion, “Affirmative action offered the illusion of reparative justice wrapped up in the rhetoric of empowerment, but its net result was to absorb and neutralise black demands for equality, not fulfill them.”

Quotas were imposed on college admissions and also on employment. This brought about corruption in the system.

Another American researcher and author, Thomas Sowell, an African-American, came to this conclusion:

• Encourage non- preferred groups to re-designate themselves as members of preferred groups to take advantage of group preference policies

• Tends to benefit primarily the most fortunate (eg Black millionaires), often to the detriment of the least fortunate among the non-preferred groups (eg poor whites)

• Reduced the incentives of both the preferred and the non-preferred to perform at their best – the former because doing so is unnecessary and the latter because it can prove futile – resulting in net losses for society.

He concludes: “Despite sweeping claims made for affirmative action programmes, an examination of their actual consequences makes it hard to support those claims, or even to say that these programmes have been beneficial on net balance.” Continue reading “When affirmative action doesn’t work, it’s time for a new solution”

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Is Tunisia a role model for the Arab world?

By Owen Bennett-Jones
BBC News
2 December 2014

When Tunisians vote in their presidential run-off election later this month, it will be the fourth time they have been to the polls in as many years.

Tunisia not only started the Arab Spring, it is now leading the way in terms of democratic development in the Middle East and North Africa.

The current frontrunner for the presidency, 88-year-old Beji Caid Essebsi, has campaigned on two themes – experience and “anything but the Islamists”.

His party, Nidaa Tounes, has attracted the backing of many who formerly supported the man brought down in 2011, President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

While Mr Essebsi is the establishment candidate his opponent, Moncef Marzouki, is a former dissident and leftist who says his top priority is to safeguard the revolution.

Coming from the conservative and poorer South, he tends to attract the religious vote. Continue reading “Is Tunisia a role model for the Arab world?”

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Tunisian Parliamentary Elections: Lessons for the Arab World

Marwan Muasher, Katie Bentivoglio
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
October 28, 2014

When Tunisians cast their ballots in parliamentary elections on October 26, they shattered three misconceptions about democracy in the Arab world.

1. Islamists will use elections to come to power and then refuse to relinquish it.

For decades, authoritarian Arab leaders have characterized Islamists as political bogeymen, warning domestic constituents and foreign allies alike that, should Islamists be permitted to participate in politics, their electoral victory would be “one man, one vote, one time.” But in Tunisia, the Islamist Ennahda party has shown respect for the political process in times of victory and defeat.

In 2011, Ennahda gained 37 percent of the seats in the National Constituent Assembly (NCA), a transitional body charged with writing the new constitution and laying the foundations for Tunisia’s democratic system. Ennahda formed a power-sharing “Troika” government with two secular parties, Ettakatol and the Congress for the Republic (CPR), demonstrating its ability to compromise and work across ideological lines. Later, following the assassinations of two prominent opposition leaders and an ensuing backlash from secularists, Ennahda prioritized Tunisia’s fragile transition over its own partisan interests and transferred power to a caretaker government that would govern until the completion of parliamentary and presidential elections.

Finally, and most importantly, Ennahda has now proved willing to admit defeat at the ballot box. Continue reading “Tunisian Parliamentary Elections: Lessons for the Arab World”

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Umno seen losing grip on Johor bastion

by Yiswaree Palansamy
The Malay Mail Online
December 7, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 7 — Johor may be the birthplace of Umno but its status as the Malay nationalist party’s fortress is increasingly under threat, according to political analysts and observers.

Growing urbanisation and rural migration have put Johor under the same conditions that led to Umno and Barisan Nasional’s hold loosen before it was eventually broken in states such as Selangor and, briefly, Perak.

“The trend in Johor is just the same as with other states, whereby the more urbanised it becomes, the more likely it is for the Malays in Johor to question the long term dependency on Umno and not stick to the idea of being loyal to a particular party,” Wan Saiful Wan Jan told the Malay Mail Online.

The chief executive of think tank Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs said, however, this decrease in blind loyalty to any particular party was necessary for a healthy democracy to flourish. Continue reading “Umno seen losing grip on Johor bastion”

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Muslims must learn about other cultures and religions, says Singaporean academician

by Sukhbir Cheema
The Rakyat Post
Dec 6, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 6, 2014: Malaysia should strike a balance between inclusivity and exclusivity of Islam to avoid the rise of extremism, a Muslim scholar says.

In stating so, National University of Singapore Prof Dr Syed Farid Al Atas said extremism was the failure of striking a balance of the two extremes.

Citing recent examples of extremist tendencies in the nation, Dr Syed said Malaysia had to develop a multi-culturalist and cosmopolitan approach in mitigating this issue.

Through education, Muslims , he said, must learn about other cultures, ethnic groups and other religions to develop a sense of admiration and respect.

“We should celebrate diversity by respecting the rights of others via achieving a balance between Islamic rules and spiritual experiences,” he told The Rakyat Post. Continue reading “Muslims must learn about other cultures and religions, says Singaporean academician”

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Can Pakatan Rakyat build on the momentum of 13GE to create the two per cent shift of votes from UMNO/BN to bring about the first catalytic change of federal government in the 14GE?

The greatest challenge in the next 14GE, whether in 2017 or 2018 , is whether Pakatan Rakyat can build on the momentum of the 13th General Elections to create the two per cent shift of vote from Umno/BN to bring about the first catalytic change of federal government.

Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin warned the recent UMNO General Assembly that BN will be ousted from power if it loses just two per cent of support in the next general election.

Let this be a reminder to all Malaysians throughout the country as to how close the UMNO/BN government would have been voted out in the 13th General Election in May last year, if the electoral process had been really clean, free and fair, minus all the constituency gerrymandering and the undemocratic abuses and malpractices in the country.

Furthermore, it should also be reminder as to how close Malaysians have come to achieve the catalytic change of federal of power in Putrajaya – as all that is needed to win Putrjaya is another two per cent of voter support that had gone to UMNO/BN.

Muhyiddin admitted that a loss of two per cent voter support will translate to Barisan Nasional being reduced from its 133 seats won in the 13GE to 103 federal states, less than half of the 222-seat Parliament – comprising 68 UMNO seats and 35 non-UMNO seats.

A loss of five per cent voter support would have slashed the total BN seats to 81, comprising 53 UMNO and 28 non-UMNO seats.

It is precisely of this fear of losing Federal power that UMNO propagandists have gone all out to drum up fear and hate through lies and falsehoods to conjure imaginary threats and enemies to convince the Malays and Muslims of The Big Lie that Malays and Islam are under threat.

Will Pakatan Rakyat be able to rise up to the challenge in the 14GE, debunk The Big Lie and win Putrajaya or will it disintegrate to give UMNO/BN an unexpected bonus? Continue reading “Can Pakatan Rakyat build on the momentum of 13GE to create the two per cent shift of votes from UMNO/BN to bring about the first catalytic change of federal government in the 14GE?”

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Is Umno the true guardian of Malay rights?

Hamzah Nazari
The Rakyat Post
Dec 6, 2014

Malays have now acquired a new sense of political awareness. And it’s causing alarm bells within the Umno establishment, said Raub MP Datuk Mohamad Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz. — TRP file pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 6, 2014: Vocal Raub MP Datuk Mohamad Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz has, in his blog Sakmongkol AK47, questioned the Umno political party’s role as a guardian of ethnic Malays.

“That idea, dear readers, is a blatant lie that has been shoved down our throats for a long time, by the Umno bourgeois elite. It is the Great Lie that all right thinking Malaysian must expose.

“That idea, that notion of a supra entity guarding our interests, flies against the concept of the free man that we are,” wrote Mohamad Ariff Sabri.

He claimed that those guarding rights were not political parties but instead people collectively acting through a government, pursuing their collective legitimate interests and rights. Continue reading “Is Umno the true guardian of Malay rights?”

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If Tunku is alive today, instead of being the “happiest Prime Minister” he would be the “unhappiest Malaysian”

On this day 24 years ago, Malaysia’s first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman passed away at the age of 87.

If Tunku is still alive today, instead of being the “happiest” Prime Minister which had been his greatest wish, he would have been the “unhappiest” Malaysian in the country.

Together with the third Prime Minister, Tun Hussein Onn, Tunku’s efforts to form UMNO Malaysia when UMNO was deregistered in 1988, was sabotaged and quashed by the then Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir who set up his own UMNO Baru which Tunku refused to join, questioning its legitimacy and integrity to his last breath.

Tunku would have been horrified at the proceedings of the recent UMNO Baru General Assembly where race-baiting and religious incitement based on the primordial politics of fear, hate and lies were given free rein, with delegates made to believe that after 57 years of UMNO government and six UMNO Prime Ministers, Malays are under siege and Islam under threat, causing one delegate to declare that Malays have become “slaves in our own land”, another to call for the use of “1 Melayu” instead of “1 Malaysia slogan”, while a third to demand that UMNO elect MCA, Gerakan and MIC leaders into the Barisan Nasional supreme council. Continue reading “If Tunku is alive today, instead of being the “happiest Prime Minister” he would be the “unhappiest Malaysian””

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Major flaw in computing bumi equity target

By Lucky Star
Malaysiakini

Part 1: Has 30pct bumi equity target been achieved?

COMMENT At the initial stage of the New Economic Policy, privatised entity and government-linked companies (GLCs) were almost non-existent.

Khazanah Nasional Berhad, the main institution through which the federal government controls GLCs, only came into existence in 1993. Therefore, before 1990, the exclusion of government shareholding owned by Khazanah was a non-issue.

But, when the privatisation policy was vigorously implemented after the publication of the ‘Privatisation Master Plan’ in 1991, the exclusion of government shareholding in privatised entities and GLCs had a significant distorting effect on equity ownership by ethnic group.

Musa Hitam, in an exclusive interview in August 2014 with the Malaysian Insider said, “But the government does not take GLCs into account when they point out that the present bumiputera equity ownership is 24 percent. We are deluding ourselves by continuously pointing a finger at the Chinese.” As a former deputy prime minister and chairperson of a GLC, Musa definitely knew what he was talking about.

For the purpose of showing bumiputera equity ownership, government data are divided into three categories of bumiputera, namely:

1) Bumiputera individuals
2) Bumiputera institutions
3) Bumiputera trust agencies
Continue reading “Major flaw in computing bumi equity target”

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Has 30pct bumi equity target been achieved?

By Little Stars
Malaysiakini

COMMENT At the outset, we wish to make it abundantly clear that we fully support the New Economic Policy (NEP) objective of eradicating poverty irrespective of race and we completely agree with the 30 percent bumiputera equity ownership target.

In a multiracial country, social engineering using affirmative action to uplift the economic status of a lagging community is necessary. We do not doubt the noble intention of the founding fathers of NEP and we believe the objectives can be achieved if right policies are formulated and implemented.

Government in any part of the world is usually quick to claim credit for any success. However, in the case of Malaysia, with regard to the achievement of 30 percent bumiputera equity ownership target, the government seemed to be more inclined to declare “failure”.
Continue reading “Has 30pct bumi equity target been achieved?”

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‘Farcical’ Sabah RCI let Projek IC masterminds off the hook, Anwar says

The Malay Mail Online
Dec 5, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today the findings of the royal commission set up in 2012 to investigate the abnormal spike in Sabah’s foreigner population was not only “farcical”, but had also failed to bring to book the real culprits behind the problem.

The Opposition Leader noted that the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report released Wednesday had placed the blame squarely on errant civil service runners for what he described as the “biggest illegal immigrant scandal” in Malaysian history since independence.

Anwar said the report, which was 366 pages long, contained mere “meaningless” texts that saw all government agencies and departments completely exonerated of any culpability in the scandal, which has now resulted in nearly 30 per cent of Sabah’s 3.12 million population made up of foreigners.

“The masterminds and the real culprits responsible for the nefarious importation into Sabah of illegal immigrants from southern Philippines and Indonesia are completely off the hook,” he said.

“Even more glaring is the utter failure to mention the role of the National Security Council as well as the Prime Minister’s Department, let alone attribute any blame on them, notwithstanding the overwhelming evidence to that effect,” he added. Continue reading “‘Farcical’ Sabah RCI let Projek IC masterminds off the hook, Anwar says”

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Umno abandoning youths, not the other way round, analysts say

By Zurairi AR and Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
The Malay Mail Online
December 6, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 6 ― As more youths migrate to urban areas, Umno can no longer blame its waning support on federal opposition pact Pakatan Rakyat (PR), analysts said when weighing in on the recent call for “rejuvenation” by the ruling party’s youth wing.

Instead, the failure to capture the support has been the result of the 65-year-old party’s disconnect with the younger set of voters compared to the pull PR has over youths or urbanites, they suggested.

“Any party that wishes to garner support from urban areas, or youths who have migrated to cities, must transform themselves,” Prof Dr Jayum Jawan, a political analyst with the National Professor Council, told Malay Mail Online in a recent phone interview.

“They should know the ‘taste’ of the urbanites, the youths. They have to understand the aspirations of the youths. Not for the youths to understand the parties instead.”

Jayum suggested that while PR component parties may not be empathetic towards the demographic, they at least understand the “lingo” of the youths.

“They dance to the youths’ rhythms. They try following their ‘taste’, their way of talking. Their tone fits with the youths. Umno should be like that as well, why can’t it?” Jayum asked.

According to the Universiti Putra Malaysia lecturer, it is “unscientific” and an “indefensible argument” to assume tha youths will automatically flock to PR just because they migrate to urban areas.

Prof Dr Shamsul Adabi Mamat, a political science lecturer with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, claimed that while majority of young urbanites might vote for PR, it is however far from a lost cause for Umno. Continue reading “Umno abandoning youths, not the other way round, analysts say”

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Post-Sabah RCI, the merry-go-round goes on

By Kim Quek
Malaysiakini
Dec 5, 2014

COMMENT The royal commission of inquiry (RCI) report exonerating the Barisan Nasional (BN) government of responsibility in the gargantuan illegal immigrant calamity in Sabah must have stunned, shocked and disgusted many who had been eagerly looking forward to this RCI report for some relief and justice.

The RCI, instead, attributes the entire blame on errant civil servants who have carried out such illegal activities for profit.

Who on earth could have believed such blatant whitewash when an influx of Muslim illegal immigrants from southern Philippines and Indonesia over a sustained period of decades has caused Sabah’s population to explode to five times its 1970 numbers (3 times the growth rate of other states)?

Also the fact that monumental evidences have been produced both before and during the hearing of the RCI of the massive conversion of these illegals into voters (popularly known as phantom voters) to rob the original Sabahans of their sovereignty?

Have our defence forces, police, immigration department, national registration department (NRD) and the entire cabinet under the BN government been in deep slumber all these decades while millions of foreigners swarmed over Sabah until they outnumbered the original inhabitants who were impoverished in the process?

Could a few corrupt civil servants motivated by greed have engineered and achieved such a fantastic feat that has drastically and illegally altered the demographic and power balance of such a huge state without a powerful command from the top hierarchy of the government? Continue reading “Post-Sabah RCI, the merry-go-round goes on”

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Oil slide threatens Malaysia’s fiscal progress

By Andy Mukherjee
Reuters
December 3, 2014

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Just when Malaysia was beginning to plug the holes in its public finances, the prospect of a sharp reduction in oil revenue is threatening to undermine fiscal progress and weaken the currency.

Petronas is playing spoiler. The state energy company recently warned that its contribution to the government’s exchequer – in the form of dividends, taxes and royalties – could slide 37 percent next year from an estimated 68 billion ringgit ($20 billion) in 2014.

Such a shortfall in the main source of government’s oil-and-gas revenue would easily exceed 2 percent of GDP. That would wipe out the 1.7 percent of GDP in annual savings the government hopes to achieve by scrapping domestic fuel subsidies from Dec. 1.

The fiscal hit could be even larger if oil prices next year remain below the $75 a barrel on which Petronas based its forecast. That would threaten the government’s target of reducing the budget deficit to 3 percent of GDP, from an estimated 3.5 percent this year.

The finance ministry is refusing to give up on the 2015 target just yet. It may hope that Petronas can be persuaded to make a less drastic cut in its dividend payment. Continue reading “Oil slide threatens Malaysia’s fiscal progress”

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Germany jails Islamic State jihadist Kreshnik Berisha

BBC News
5 December 2014

A German man has been jailed for three years and nine months for joining Islamic State (IS) militants, in the first trial of its kind in Germany.

A court in Frankfurt convicted Kreshnik Berisha of membership of a foreign terrorist organisation.

Berisha avoided the heaviest sentence of 10 years after admitting he spent six months with IS in Syria last year.

German authorities believe more than 500 German citizens have travelled to fight for IS in Iraq and Syria.

The domestic intelligence agency estimates that 60 have died there in combat or suicide attacks, and 180 have returned to Germany, according to the AFP news agency. Continue reading “Germany jails Islamic State jihadist Kreshnik Berisha”

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ISIS in Gaza

by Khaled Abu Toameh
Gatestone Institute
December 5, 2014

When One Radical Group Believes Another Is Not Radical Enough

It is always dreamlike to see one Islamist terror group accuse the other of being too “lenient” when it comes to enforcing sharia laws. But it is not dreamlike when a terrorist group starts threatening writers and women.

That is what is happening these days in the Gaza Strip, where supporters of the Islamic State are accusing Hamas of failing to impose strict Islamic laws on the Palestinian population — as if Hamas has thus far endorsed a liberal and open-minded approach toward those who violate sharia laws.

Until this week, the only topic Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were talking about was how to rebuild homes and buildings that were destroyed during the last war between Hamas and Israel.

Now, however, almost everyone is talking about the Islamic State threats against poets, writers and women. Continue reading “ISIS in Gaza”