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Why has Husni disappeared from the radar after two months as Cabinet spokesman for 1MDB, destroying his credibility and integrity which he had painstakingly built up for over two decades?

Yesterday, 1MDB was the top issue at Bank Negara’s third-quarter economic briefing where Bank Negara Governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz was asked whether the central bank had made any mistake in the investigation on 1MDB’s investment abroad.

When Zeti replied with an emphatic “No”, it must have deepened the question on everybody’s mind why in his first wide-ranging press interview, where the new Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali talked on a wide variety of subjects including why the sedition charge against Tinju Ali was dropped and the unfettered exercise of his discretionary powers as Public Prosecutor, he failed to explain the reasons why he rejected Bank Negara’s recommendations for prosecution against 1MDB for violation of financial laws.

This morning, there was an overwhelming crowd at the briefing for UMNO divisional leaders at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) where 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy proved to be a greater crowd-puller on the subject of 1MDB than UMNO heavyweights scheduled to speak for the day, like Minister for International Trade and Industry, Datuk Seri Mustapha Mohamad on the Transpacific Partnership Agreement and the Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanazlah on the 2016 Budget.

In fact, the crowd-puller today should have been Husni as at the Cabinet meeting in the last week of May, Husni was appointed the Cabinet spokesman for 1MDB, but he disappeared from the public scene as Cabinet spokeman on the 1MDB after two months. Continue reading “Why has Husni disappeared from the radar after two months as Cabinet spokesman for 1MDB, destroying his credibility and integrity which he had painstakingly built up for over two decades?”

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Paris rocked by explosions and shootouts leaving more than 140 dead

By Griff Witte and William Branigin
Washington Post
November 13 at 8:35 PM

France declared a state of emergency and sealed its borders Friday evening after a series of apparently coordinated terrorist attacks struck at sites across Paris, leaving at least 140 people dead and scenes of horror and carnage outside a soccer stadium, at cafés and inside a concert hall.

At the Bataclan theater alone, at least 118 people were reported massacred by gunmen armed with assault rifles and explosives.

The attacks on half a dozen targets spawned panic and chaos in a city where residents and tourists had only minutes earlier been enjoying a cool and quiet November evening.

At the concert hall, gunfire and explosions rang out as security forces moved in on hostage takers who had stormed a performance by an American rock band.

Police said the attackers threw explosives at the hostages, in addition to opening fire on them. About 100 people were rescued when security forces stormed the building, French media reported. One official described the scene inside as “carnage.” Continue reading “Paris rocked by explosions and shootouts leaving more than 140 dead”

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Call on Najib to declare his stand – whether he will resign as Prime Minister if his 2016 Budget is rejected by Parliament on Monday

Datuk Seri Najib Razak should declare his stand well before Parliament’s resumption after the Deepavali break on Monday, whether he will resign as Prime Minister if his 2016 Budget is rejected by Parliament during it second reading on Monday.

This has become an issue as the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and Gerakan President, Datuk Mah Siew Keong told Sin Chew Daily that there is no need for Najib to resign as Prime Minister even if the 2016 Budget is rejected by Parliament.

This is turning accepted parliamentary conventions and practices on their head but for this perversion of parliamentary tradition to come from the President of a political party which had prided itself as “the conscience” of the Barisan Nasional coalition government indicates the degree of depravity and degradation this political party had undergone in order to hang on to the few perks of office and position in government.

Regardless of the outcome of the Parliamentary vote on Monday, Najib should declare his stand on whether he would resign as Prime Minister if the 2016 budget is rejected, or he would hang on to office, both as Prime Minister and Finance Minister, regardless of the outcome of the parliamentary vote? Continue reading “Call on Najib to declare his stand – whether he will resign as Prime Minister if his 2016 Budget is rejected by Parliament on Monday”

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Celebrating democracy

Economist
Nov 14th 2015

– Politics in Myanmar YANGON

THE excitement was palpable. In the pre-dawn dark of November 8th, 30 minutes before voting in Myanmar’s general election began, the queue at a polling station in Yangon, the country’s biggest city, stretched for several blocks. In midmorning a line of voters trailing through a monastery’s leafy grounds suddenly shifted to allow a frail elderly woman, carried up a flight of stairs by two young men, to cast her ballot. Through blazing midday sun and afternoon rainstorms, Myanmar’s citizens turned out to vote in their country’s first competitive general election since 1990—most of them, it appeared, to deliver a blow to the army, which has controlled the country for half a century.

Full results are not yet in, but as The Economist went to press, the National League for Democracy (NLD), an opposition party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, a longtime democracy activist, had won 291 parliamentary seats, compared with just 33 taken by the incumbent Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and 35 by assorted ethnic parties and independent candidates. Miss Suu Kyi believes the NLD is on track to win at least 75% of the seats contested—enough to give it a majority, despite the constitution’s provision that one-quarter of the seats must be reserved for the army. Continue reading “Celebrating democracy”

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Behold The Liberated Minds of Our Hang Jebats and Hang Nadirs!

M. Bakri Musa
www.bakrimusa.com
14th Nov 2015

Why do you stay in prison when the door is wide open?
Jalal ad Din Rumi (1207-73)

The path we chose in pursuing independence represented the best elements of our culture. We followed the right leaders and they in turn adopted the right strategy, one of co-operation and negotiation. That was our nature, to be bertolak ansur (give and take); posturing and confrontation were just not our style.

Our leaders’ timing too was perfect as Britain had grown weary of her colonies. We were also lucky in that we were dealing with the British. Had it been the Chinese, well, consider the fate of the Tibetans and Uighurs. Had it been the Russians, look at Ukraine and Chechnya.

Today revisionist historians belittle the valiant efforts of our fathers of independence. Let me set these latter-day interpreters of events straight. Had we opted for Burhanuddin Al Helmy or Chin Peng, the nation’s history and the fate of our people would be far different today.

In times of crises or profound changes, we have to be extra cautious in whom we choose to lead us, or stated differently, in whom we should follow. It is during such times that we have to exercise our critical faculties and be extra vigilant in choosing our leaders. Malaysia is in such a state today. We have a leader in Najib Razak who is severely-challenged with respect to honesty, integrity, and competency. Profligacy he has in abundance. Continue reading “Behold The Liberated Minds of Our Hang Jebats and Hang Nadirs!”